I have a 2TB MyPassport Ultra that is losing sectors - the drive fails all diagnostics and currently reads/writes at 60 kb/s. I have an RMA for the drive but I want to erase it before sending it in. All of the erase programs I have access to use a variant of writing zeros and with the slow drive speed the completion time is measured in years. Apparently there is an internal ATA Secure Erase utility than runs within most drives built since 2001. HDDErase activates this utility but requires that the drive be connected to a motherboard controller - it does not recognize USB drives. Since the drive in the MyPassport uses a proprietary connector instead of a SATA connection I don’t know of any way to connect it to a motherboard controller. Does anyone know a way of activating the internal ATA Secure Erase on these portable USB drives?
Hopefully an experienced User will be able to assist.
On the other hand, if you opened your hard drive it could invalidate the unit’s warranty even if you already requested an RMA.
Thanks for the reply Trancer. In retrospect I don’t think that these small portable drives are a good choice for backup drives. I don’t backup trivial files, so the files on the drive are important. Given the prevalence of identity theft I don’t feel comfortable sending the drive for RMA with the files intact. An internal hard drive in an enclosure would have been a better choice for backup - at least then I could connect it to a motherboard with a SATA cable and have more options for secure erase. If I can’t get a software secure erase on this Passport Ultra, rather than RMA it I’ll do a hardware erase - on the chopping block with an axe. The 3 year warranty looks good on paper, but if the drive fails and you can’t erase it you have to be willing to RMA it with the files intact.
