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

In message <746da1d5-72f8-42fc-917b-f4de0e4d98f9@app.fastmail.com>, 
 robert@rrbrussell.com wrote:

>I agree with securing the data, but drilling is not thorough enough to
>stop recovery and marks the drive as a high value target. You are basically
>betting that microscopic magnetic domain scanning will not improve
>faster than the areal storage density of the drives you throw away. Not a
>bet I want to take personally.

OK, so this brings up a new, different, but related problem I have.

I'm basically cleaning out my closet and erasing all the drives I no
longer need in preparation for selling them on eBay.  (If any of you
folks need SATA drives, some w/ high mileage, some low, of any size
including 4TB, 2TB, 1TB, 500GB, or 250GB let me know via off-list
email.  I got a lot of them that need to go.  Most of what I've got
is WD or HGST.  I've never been a Seagate fan.)

Anyway, one of the drives I've got that I am hoping to dispense with soon
is an older model WD "Passport" external 4TB USB3 drive.  Optimally, I'd
like to simply perform a S.M.A.R.T. secure erase on the thing, but there's
a catch.  Various online sources say that one needs to use S.M.A.R.T.
to set a passowrd on the drive before initiating a S.M.A.R.T. secure
erase, HOWEVER it is also said in mutiple places that using S.M.A.R.T.
to set a password on a USB external drive can be deadly, as in it may
brick the device.  HOWEVER it is also said in mutiple places that the
exception(s) to this general rule are at least _some_ WD Passport USB
external drives.

So, do any of you folks happen to know whether I can sefely do this on an
older model WD 4TB USB3 Passord drive?  The original box, which I still have,
says:

    MODEL: WDBYFT0040BBK-WESN

The thing identifies itself to S.M.A.R.T. as follows:

    Model Family:     Western Digital Elements / My Passport (USB, AF)
    Device Model:     WDC WD40NMZW-11GX6S1
    Serial Number:    WD-WX41D77D4DX6
    LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 607feedd8
    Firmware Version: 01.01A01
    User Capacity:    4,000,753,475,584 bytes [4.00 TB]
    Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
    Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
    Form Factor:      2.5 inches
    Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
    ATA Version is:   ACS-3 (minor revision not indicated)
    SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)

Is there a list someplace of which WD USB Passport drives are safe to
manipulate via S.M.A.R.T.?

I need to erase this for disposal, but obviously, I would prefer not to brick
it.  Unless I can be sure that I can do that safely using S.M.A.R.T. commands
I'll have no choice but to just dd /dev/zero to the thing and hope that does
the job.


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  My apologies that this topic is not really FreeBSD specific.  I won't
complain if someone hits me with a wet noodle and/or chastizes me for being
off-topic.  I beg all indulgence.


P.P.S.   I'm actually not THAT paranoid.  I kinda don't think that there are any
nation state actors waiting around for me to sell my tired old drives on eBay.
:-)  That having been said, I still don't plan on buying any pagers anytime soon.