This is not directly a Fedora question but I only run Fedora on all my machines! I have one machine where the disk is throwing up "smart" errors though the machine is still running so far, and the overall assessment (via Palimsest) is "healthy". Every few days there is a popup warning that the disk is about to fail! I am planning to replace the disk and install F13 from scratch on the new disc - but the question I have is that if I plug the old (not-very-healthy!) disk in to a sata-to-usb external adapter, and then hotplug the usb cable into the new machine on a usb port, I am guessing that I will not be able to pass hdparm commands to the old disk connected in this way in order to to secure-erase the old drive via its onboard controller? I am not keen to go and try to find a spare computer to put the old drive in the internal bay and then run a live distro to issue secure erase commands, since it is a hassle, and it would be so much nicer/easier to do it via an external cable. I have been told that usb does not support the full ata command sent and the secure erase commands are likely not to get through - even "hdparm -l /dev/sdb" might be problematic? If there is a particular adapter that would allow me to do this I would love to hear about it if anyone knows about these things.... yes the platters will ultimately be removed and beaten out of shape but I would like to remove the data first. Thanks -- mike c -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
