did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

wakkadojo · 2013-03-29 03:24:42

I have an SSD that I was using externally through a USB port. I issued a command to wipe the device

sudo dcfldd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=4m

I can still format the drive and everything, but curiously hdparm gives me

stella ~ $ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdc

/dev/sdc:
SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]:  70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

ATA device, with non-removable media
	Serial Number:      êÿÿ
Standards:
	Likely used: 1
Configuration:
	Logical		max	current
	cylinders	0	0
	heads		0	0
	sectors/track	510	0
	--
	Logical/Physical Sector size:           512 bytes
	device size with M = 1024*1024:           0 MBytes
	device size with M = 1000*1000:           0 MBytes 
	cache/buffer size  = unknown
Capabilities:
	IORDY not likely
	Cannot perform double-word IO
	R/W multiple sector transfer: not supported
	DMA: not supported
	PIO: pio0

This bothers me because not only is my computer unable to identify the SSD capabilities/optimizations, but it won't even recognize the firmware version or serial number O.O

Any ideas?

Last edited by wakkadojo (2013-04-22 21:15:54)

UnhappymealQQ · 2013-03-29 03:53:31

That's odd for sure -- I did literally the same thing last evening (well I used frandom) and no problems. How old is your drive/what kind? Do you have a Mac/Win PC you can plug it into and see what happens?

ewaller · 2013-03-29 04:02:54

I know one can kill a Compact Flash or an SD doing that. I don't know about a SSD (I presume this drive has a SATA interface)

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-29 04:03:21

Maybe you can attempt to "update" the firmware and see what happens. This should definitely not happen.

In the future, you can actually use hdparm to secure wipe the drive, if that is what you were trying to do. Of course, if you are doing something like using /dev/frandom for encryption, then that wouldn't work.

wakkadojo · 2013-03-29 04:08:36

The drive was connected by USB so I couldn't secure wipe. The same issue sort of prevents me from doing a firmware update (I don't have a desktop/motherboard to plug the drive in directly, it's all on USB).

I am getting the sense that I'm SOTL

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-29 04:21:45

Use a friend's computer maybe?

A number of firmware updaters for SSDs actually run off of a bootable optical disc or USB. So maybe you could create the bootable media, turn off the computer, swap the drives, then update?

If the updater is something that is meant to be run in an OS, then you could still create a minimal boot environment on which to run it. For instance, I know Sandforce based drives actually have a Linux updater. So you could use something like puppy to run it off of a USB stick. Also, Samsung drives have a windows/dos based updater which can be run from FreeDOS. Simple FreeDOS environments can be found on the internets that are all prepared.

wakkadojo · 2013-03-29 04:27:02

The drive I was wiping is a "gumstick" sandisk u100, a proprietary variation of the regular mSATA u100 from sandisk. I don't know if the firmware for this model is freely available, since I know that the firmware was actually adapted from sandisk by asus for their UX21/UX31 series. This firmware was never released. By removing the drive in the first place, the warranty is invalidated and I can't get support from asus.

I was kind of hoping this was a harmless error and perhaps a simple solution (like a new partition table or something). Hearing your responses confirmed my suspicion that I nuked the poor hard drive. Obscure hard drive, no drivers, no motherboard to plug into, no full ssd image, for some reason gets nuked by dd. SOTL I cry all day. At least the hard drive still mounts etc, it's just nuked. Thanks anyway guys!

Last edited by wakkadojo (2013-03-29 04:34:31)

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-29 04:39:13

Have you even tried to put a partition table onto it? I think that if you are using it through USB, things like TRIM won't work anyway, and smartctl has to be adjusted to work correctly (and on some USB adapters it does not work at all). So if you can make a new partition table and write data to it, then who cares if hdparm is reading those features or not.

Edit: I didn't see this part before I write this

...At least the hard drive still mounts etc, it's just nuked...

So if it mounts, then that means you do have a partition table on it and in fact a filesystem as well. So I wouldn't call that "nuked". I might not call it reliable, but certainly not nuked.

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2013-03-29 04:41:56)

wakkadojo · 2013-03-29 04:44:39

Sorry for my liberal usage of "nuke"

Yeah I was able to make a partition table and format it, it just appeared to have lost all identification of the drive and its capabilities.

alphaniner · 2013-03-29 14:29:25

@OP

Found this. Summary: OP had similar hdparm output (also some issue with a password, but that seems ancillary). He tried a different (powered) USB adaptor and connecting via SATA, and in both cases hdparm output seemed sane.

If that fails, maybe it's time to check your warranty.

ewaller wrote:

I know one can kill a Compact Flash or an SD doing that.

I'm sure that's a possibility, but it doesn't seem like it should be common, unless the device was shoddy or on its way out already. Also, I have a bit of experience in this area: the products my company makes boot off CFs and other types of 'solid state' storage, and we dd them upon return (I've said it's overkill, but no one listens ). And Google didn't turn up any warnings about dd'ing either type of device.

wakkadojo · 2013-04-22 21:15:31

Thanks for all of the input everyone.

I managed to hook this drive up directly to a motherboard (instead of through a USB), and the hdparm output is SANE

For some reason, wiping the drive nuked the hdparm -I output through usb, though when on a main board the output is fine.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-03-29 03:24:42

did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#2 2013-03-29 03:53:31

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#3 2013-03-29 04:02:54

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#4 2013-03-29 04:03:21

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#5 2013-03-29 04:08:36

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#6 2013-03-29 04:21:45

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#7 2013-03-29 04:27:02

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#8 2013-03-29 04:39:13

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#9 2013-03-29 04:44:39

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#10 2013-03-29 14:29:25

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

#11 2013-04-22 21:15:31

Re: did wiping my hard drive ruin it? [SOLVED]

Board footer