DBAN Can't Find Drives - But Wait! There's More![SOLVED-ish]

[babaguy]

Hello All -

Brand new laptop built by PC Specialist in the not-so-UK. They will not / cannot build a machine without a "test vesrion" of Windows 10 (!!!!) -

( I know, I know - It's my own fault. Like everything else...! )

The Machine has two hard drives - One is a SATA Solid State Drive, and the other is a Solid State M.2 drive.

I managed to disable the UEFI setting in the BIOS with the help of one of PC Specialist 's phonewallahs, and used an older version of DBAN to TRY to get the drives wiped.

Older DBAN ( dban-beta.2006042900_i386 ) couldn't FIND the drives, told me so, and I powered down the machine.

I downloaded a newer version of DBAN - ( 2.3.0_i586.iso ) - burned it to a DVD, booted into the new machine and got even less distance than with the older version of DBAN - with the following:

" cat: can't open '/proc/cmdline' : No such file or directory "

Is M'$oft HIDING / CLOAKING the drives that are formatted with their crapware / spyware...?

Is there anything I can do to help DBAN FIND these drives...?

Any help will be MUCH appreciated!.

Thank you in advance -

[babaguy]

THIS might help me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxNL6sCuDQ

This fellow says that DBAN cannot erase Solid State Drives -

About to download "Parted Magic" -

https://partedmagic.com

"Onward!

- babaguy

[starhawk]

Where sda is the drive you want to blow apart the contents of.

Code: Select all

cat /dev/zero > /dev/sda

That will securely overwrite the entire volume with zeros. Unless you wear a tinfoil hat to work every day, it quite sufficiently obliterates whatever data was on that volume.

If you /do/ wear a tinfoil hat to work every day, run the command twice, and then please seek a psychological evaluation.

[rcrsn51]

Zeroing a drive is like scraping all the old paint off a wall before adding a new coat. It is very rarely necessary.

Just boot Puppy and run Gparted.

Run Device > Create Partition Table.

Create new partitions as needed.

[starhawk]

I agree for the most part, but it sounded like he wanted to be extra sure he'd gotten every trace out.

Also -- exterior walls, I would want the old paint off first. Speaking from experience...

[rcrsn51]

but it sounded like he wanted to be extra sure he'd gotten every trace out.

That's the problem. People have an idea that all those hidden Windows bits can somehow spontaneously re-activate and take over your computer, unless you permanently erase them. It doesn't work like that.

[starhawk]

True, that.

[babaguy]

Thanks, Guys - As Ever -

It's not as simple as it ought to be with this new machine...

I bought and burned the .iso of "Parted Magic" and it booted fine in the new machine. The machine has TWO hard drives, both solid state drives. In "Parted Magic" in "Erase Disks" it only saw and allowed me to access ONE of the drives, and so I flash'd that one and it took mere moments. It's not like DBAN overwriting the whole disk.

In GParted, the "Parted Magic" SAW the other drive, which is the one that had the Window$ partition and three others on it, but I hesitated to erase or delete these partitions just yet.. .

When I did a hardware scan in "Parted Magic", the M.2 drive (which I'd wiped) is listed as an "unknown" type of drive and despite being visible in Hardware Info, is unable to be seen by GParted . . .

But the "Erase Disk" function didn't see the *OTHER* drive on which was the "test" version of Window$ 10...

Ho Hey . . .

I shut down the "Parted Magic" session and booted "Studio 13.37" (based on Slacko Puppy - created by l0wt3ch) - from the DVD, and in GParted, it SAW the drive with the Window$ partition on it, and I deleted the partitions -

- But in Studio 13.37, Gparted couldn't see the M.2 drive at all.....

I'll struggle with it some more over the next few days, but I suspect it may be going back to the manufacturer ( PC Specialist.co.uk ) for a full refund, as there are a number of discrepancies from what I ordered and what this machine *is*, not least of which is Hardware Info only sees 8 GB of RAM and I paid for 16....

The main thing for Puppy People to note here is that DBAN and KILLDISK will not erase solid state drives... They need to be flashed with the ATA SECURE ERASE command... and this *is* available in "Parted Magic" which costs $9.00 to purchase & download...

https://partedmagic.com/

It's a rather Puppy-esque Linux version, btw - and useable as a full, RAM based OS, like Puppy...

Thanks for your help and input, as ever!

[bigpup]

Wonder what partition table and format these drives have?

[cthisbear]

"Wonder what partition table and format these drives have?"

GPT???

Chris.

[gcmartin]

The community struggles with having consistent knowledge of both PC system POST and PC system drives on newly purchased systems.

UEFI is sorely misunderstood and GPT, as well. on both SSDs and USBs.

It is the source of much discomfort that I have seen over the past year. And there still is emotional struggles affecting understanding. Apple iOS, Windows, and Linux has addressed this, but ...

Hopefully some consistency in understanding and maybe some consistent PUP articles will begin to emerge.

We have almost as many options with the new as there is with the old technology.

[babaguy]

I'm returning the machine to PC Specialist for a complete refund - If nothing else, the plastic case - esp. the DVD-RW drive - is extremely brittle and flimsy.

I think I'm better off out of it!

Once I get my refund, I'll search for another new machine on which to create music.

"Onward!" as Lindsay Anderson used to sign off...

And Thank you Again - I noted to the company that their NOT informing me of the partition table(s) and format(s) of these two solid state hard drives - after I'd made it abundantly clear that I intended to wipe the drives and use Linux - constituted a MATERIAL OMISSION in our purchase contract / agreement.

I was not able to use the proper tools to SEE, let alone re-partition the drives...

I disabled the UEFI settings, btw, in order to be able to boot from the DVD drive using "Parted Magic" and "Studio 13.37"

Thanks for taking the time to point all this out, GCMartin, cthisbear, bigpup, rcrsn51 and Starhawk! You guys are STILL the Best!!!

- babaguy