Re: How to zero a failing disk drive before disposal?

On Thu, Oct 10, 2024, at 10:17, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2024-10-10 at 08:16 -0500, robert@rrbrussell.com wrote:
>> invoke the ATA Secure Erase feature
>
> ATA Secure Erase or ATA Cryptographic Key Reset are as secure as a pager
> or walkie-talkie, as it is impossible to know whose fingers were
> involved in their manufacture or in the supply chain.

Quit spreading FUD. The cost of building a subverted drive isn’t worth the time or money for general distribution in the economy. You need a high percentage of the drive’s physical capacity dedicated to spare space to get a decent chance of catching useable data in “reallocated” space. Of course your competition can just sell a higher capacity drive and put you out of business.

The easiest way to destroy information is forgetting the encryption key but most people don’t use FDE.