Just Zero Erase my new SSD - What now?

[Baral]

LOL did you not even look at the link posted? It shows you can clearly do it without taking the SSD out and without HDDERASE?!

Without HDDErase, yes.

Without taking it out, not exactly. On a Mac you'll need to hot-swap your internal drive, so you will have to take off the bottom cover of your laptop and disconnect the drive, if only for a second. So I guess technically you aren't "taking it out", but you aren't exactly leaving it untouched.

 

[Maclver]

Without HDDErase, yes.

Without taking it out, not exactly. On a Mac you'll need to hot-swap your internal drive, so you will have to take off the bottom cover of your laptop and disconnect the drive, if only for a second. So I guess technically you aren't "taking it out", but you aren't exactly leaving it untouched.

WOW! read the link again.... If you use the unbuntu cd all you have to do is close the lid until it's asleep open it back up and bam un frozen I have done it twice without taking out the ssd or openin the bottom......


Please please read the last two pages of that link...

 

[steffi]

Well doesn't it also depend on sleep working with your hardware?

right now I have 3 SSDs, OWC Extreme 240 which is in my MBP i7 and I have two Intel G1 SSD's 80 and 160 gb both in USB enclosures. I don't think I can use these enclosures to HDDERASE these drives.

WOW! read the link again.... If you use the unbuntu cd all you have to do is close the lid until it's asleep open it back up and bam un frozen I have done it twice without taking out the ssd or openin the bottom......


Please please read the last two pages of that link...

 

[wilflare]

Well doesn't it also depend on sleep working with your hardware?

right now I have 3 SSDs, OWC Extreme 240 which is in my MBP i7 and I have two Intel G1 SSD's 80 and 160 gb both in USB enclosures. I don't think I can use these enclosures to HDDERASE these drives.

Not using HDDERASE perhaps,
the link Maclver provided proposes the use of gparted/ubuntu to perform an ATA Secure Erase.

In your case,
using USB enclosures can get by the "freeze" for you to format the drives. This is outlined in Step ONE:

#2 Unfreeze your SSD: This is required because the firmware for the on-board SATA connectors "freezes the drive" (to use the ATA nomenclature) making it unable to accept the secure-erase command. There are at at least 3 reported ways to solve this...

Option A: Attaching the target drive via a USB enclosure eliminates this issue. This is the method I used. Get A USB enclosure or dock for your SSD. Apparently eSATA enclosures may also work if that's more convenient for you.

To keep things simple, I would recommend you pull all your other SSD's and HDD's from your Mac Pro... only use the optical drive and the target drive connected via USB.

You don't necessarily have to pull all other drives, just make you follow the correct /dev/X (where X is the assigned name of your SSD) when performing the commands.

Please check the link Maclver provided, it provides very clear instructions on either a hot-swap or sleep method of bypassing the freeze.

 

[Baral]

WOW! read the link again.... If you use the unbuntu cd all you have to do is close the lid until it's asleep open it back up and bam un frozen I have done it twice without taking out the ssd or openin the bottom......


Please please read the last two pages of that link...

WOW! Read the link again... the sleep method hasn't been verified to work on the GParted CD (which is what the tutorial uses). In fact, both wilflare and I have used the sleep trick with GParted and it didn't work for either of us. And as for a different distro of Linux, it's hit or miss, which is something the guide mentions in the original post. The sleep trick is very spotty and is not reliable. It may work, but it most likely will not, and as far as GParted goes (again, which is what the tutorial uses) it doesn't seem to work.

Please please read the links you posted yourself....

 

[wilflare]

hey guys, let's cool it off ^^

i can verify that it works with ubuntu!

 

[Maclver]

WOW! Read the link again... the sleep method hasn't been verified to work on the GParted CD (which is what the tutorial uses). In fact, both wilflare and I have used the sleep trick with GParted and it didn't work for either of us. And as for a different distro of Linux, it's hit or miss, which is something the guide mentions in the original post. The sleep trick is very spotty and is not reliable. It may work, but it most likely will not, and as far as GParted goes (again, which is what the tutorial uses) it doesn't seem to work.

Please please read the links you posted yourself....

LOL and if you would have read the thread you would also notice if you used unbuntu all you need Gparted for is to find out the proper name of the drive i.e SDA1 or whatever.. LOL.. All that matters is there is a method that works on the mac without taking the ssd out!