Table of Contents
Information
- Quick-commands to wipe drives and clear EFI variables
- Notably performs full-drive TRIMs for SSDs (ArchWiki)
- Useful to perform before OS installations
- Ideally use openSUSE Tumbleweed's latest GNOME Live image on USB due to it having up-to-date tools, a GUI, and USB data persistence 1)
Notes
- FreeBSD UFS mount (from Linux LiveUSB)
Tools
sudo zypper install 'nvme-cli' -y && sync
sudo dnf install nvme-cli hdparm -y && sync
sudo apt install 'nvme-cli' -y && sync
Dell Fan Speed
- 2024/10: Seemingly broken in new-ish/6.11+ kernels but works fine from 6.6(?) in oS Leap 15.6
sudo smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode='performance'
Suspend/Wake
- Some motherboard firmware lock/freeze drives, and prevents some wipe commands from working
- Unlocking drives can be done with a suspend and wake
This applies to both SATA and NVMe drives
sync && systemctl suspend
lsblk
- Always check before running anything
- Assume nothing; all commands below are immediately destructive on the block device they're ran on
lsblk
EFI Variables
sudo rm -f '/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/'* || sync && sudo efibootmgr -v
Drive Wipe
NVMe
Check LBA Formats
- Switching is done with
nvme format --lbaf=1
sudo nvme id-ns '/dev/nvme0' --namespace-id='1' --human-readable
sudo smartctl --all '/dev/nvme0'
nvme0
- This is using LBA Format
0 - Last tested:
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller PM9A1/PM9A3/980PRO(only 1 LBA Format at512)
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/nvme0n1' && sudo nvme format '/dev/nvme0' --force --namespace-id='1' --lbaf='0' --reset --ses='1' --pil='0' --pi='0' --ms='0' && sudo rm -f '/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/'* || sync
Individual
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/nvme0n1'
sudo nvme format '/dev/nvme0' --force --namespace-id='1' --lbaf='0' --reset --ses='1' --pil='0' --pi='0' --ms='0'
sudo wipefs --all --force '/dev/nvme0n1'
sudo dd if='/dev/zero' of='/dev/nvme0n1' count='1024'
sda/b/c
LBA Formats
Check
sudo smartctl --all '/dev/sda'
Switch
sudo hdparm --set-sector-size '4096' '/dev/sda'
sda
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/sda' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sda' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase 'x' '/dev/sda' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sda' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced 'x' '/dev/sda' && sudo rm -f '/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/'* || sync
Individual
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/sda'
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sda' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase 'x' '/dev/sda'
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sda' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced 'x' '/dev/sda'
sudo wipefs --all --force '/dev/sda'
sudo dd if='/dev/zero' of='/dev/sda' count='1024'
sdb
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/sdb' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdb' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase 'x' '/dev/sdb' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdb' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced 'x' '/dev/sdb' && sudo rm -f '/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/'* || sync
Individual
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/sdb'
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdb' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase 'x' '/dev/sdb'
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdb' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced 'x' '/dev/sdb'
sudo wipefs --all --force '/dev/sdb'
sudo dd if='/dev/zero' of='/dev/sdb' count='1024'
sdc
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/sdc' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdc' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase 'x' '/dev/sdc' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdc' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced 'x' '/dev/sdc' && sudo rm -f '/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/'* || sync
Individual
sudo blkdiscard --force --verbose '/dev/sdc'
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdc' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase 'x' '/dev/sdc'
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass 'x' '/dev/sdc' && sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced 'x' '/dev/sdc'
sudo wipefs --all --force '/dev/sdc'
sudo dd if='/dev/zero' of='/dev/sdc' count='1024'
Sector Size Notes
4K Sectors
- Steam and Oculus were known to be broken with 4K sector size on Windows 11
- Steam and Oculus worked fine with 4K sector size on Windows 10 LTSC 2021 and Linux
- iTunes possibly fails with 4K sectors due to Bonjour and dnssd.dll (post)
Sector Size
1)
can copy a command into Terminal and run it on one machine, boot the drive on another machine, and use Terminal history to re-run the command; it's quite convenient :p