11-Target NVMe Duplicator - General Operation - Erase - Sanitize Erase

Sanitize Erase is a set of firmware commands available on many ATA drives. These commands are used as a secure method of data sanitization by completely overwriting all data on a drive. The type of sanitization method implemented by Sanitize Erase is device-specific, and may vary from drive to drive. In some cases, the Sanitize Erase will overwrite all sectors with a predefined pattern of ones and zeroes. In other cases, the drive has an internal encryption key which is simply destroyed and regenerated. Unlike Disk Wipe and Disk Erase, the Sanitize Erase process is effective at sanitizing SSDs because it can access and erase all sectors on a SSD.

Sanitize Erase is approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-88 as a method for purging ATA hard disk drives.

Caution! Unlike Disk Wipe or Disk Erase , the duplicator only invokes the Sanitize Erase command. The actual data wiping is done at the drive firmware level. Please keep the following points in mind:

• Only some ATA drive manufacturers include Secure Erase commands in firmware, most do not. Please check with the drive manufacturer to verify that your drive model supports ATA Enhanced Secure Erase before attempting.
• If there are kernel of firmware bugs, executing the ATA Sanitize Erase command could render a drive unusable. It is recommended to check with the drive manufacturer before performing this function.