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HDDerase equivalent for Mac?

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

I have an Intel x25-m G2 drive in a 13" MacBook Pro with the latest firmware (the one causing all the issues on Windows 7). It has been fine, but I'm curious if there's a way to send the secure erase ATA command to the drive like HDDerase does.

I've made FreeDOS boot discs with HDDerase on it, but it doesn't see the drive (I believe this is because the Mac always has the drive in enhanced SATA mode and I believe HDDerase requires IDE mode -- something I cannot change, nor would I want to in light of the latest firmware issues possibly springing from switching ide/ahci modes for the drive).

I'm sure other Mac users are wondering the same thing.

12 REPLIES 12

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

What happens if you run Intel SSD Optimizer under Boot Camp Windows 7 setup. I own 13 MacBook Pro 2.53Ghz Model (late 2009)

I have installed Windows 7 x86 Ultimate and allocated 30Gb to it. My firmware is still not updated as I am waiting for the final release, but the question is would I be able to TRIM my MAC Partition at all? Any advices would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

No, it will not work. I haven't tried it, but TRIM does not work as of yet on a MAC filesystem. If you do try it make sure you have good backups just in case it doesn't work.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Along the same lines as the Linux CD and hdparm, http://partedmagic.com/ Parted Magic's gparted includes a Secure Erase option as well.

Note that the Frozen status is due to your BIOS blocking commands like Secure Erase for safety (to ensure that a virus or something won't run a Secure Erase command). The easiest way around it is to hotplug your SATA drive after the BIOS has gone through that part of its routine, though that may not always be practical and/or work right.