How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

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timg11
Posts: 262
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:31 pm

How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by timg11 »

I see from the page on CopyWipe that it is obsolete and its functions are incorporated into BIBM, IFW and IFL.

Since I can get to IFW without rebooting, how can I perform a full-drive wipe from IFW? I see the options regarding "Wipe Target Unused Sectors", but how can a wipe a drive directly, not as a part of a restore? Say I have a drive that is starting to fail and being sent in for a RMA. What is the quick process to wipe it from IFW?

I suppose I could format the drive, create an image, then restore the image with "Wipe Target Unused Sectors" but that seems like a long way around. Is there a direct "drive wipe" function like what was in CopyWipe?

PS I tried CopyWipe Windows and it reports "No Usable Hard Drives Found"
timg11
Posts: 262
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:31 pm

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by timg11 »

I just did it the way I described with a "throwaway" image. 15 seconds to create image, estimated 9 hours to restore :-)
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by TeraByte Support »

if you have IFL GUI full version with BootIt key you can use partwork or from BootIt BM boot and use "BIOS Direct" then wipe with hardware options (both partwork version have it).

The time for restore with wipe can take a while, especially if bad sectors since when it hits those it can take several minutes per sector to get past it.
The Seeker
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Adelaide

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by The Seeker »

When selecting the Hardware option we are presented with a 'Zzz' button - I assume this is to put the machine to sleep in case of a frozen SSD. I have tried this but my laptop does not wake up once put to sleep. (The same feature does work when using the Parted Magic Live USB.)

I am using the latest IFL GUI with a BootIt key. My machine specs are as follows:

Code: Select all

Computer:      Alienware 17 R5
CPU:           Intel Core i7-8750H (Coffee Lake-H, U0)
               2200 MHz (22.00x100.0) @ 798 MHz (8.00x99.8)
Motherboard:   Alienware Alienware 17 R5
BIOS:          1.20.0, 05/09/2022
Chipset:       Intel CM246 (Cannon Lake-H)
Memory:        16384 MBytes @ 1330 MHz, 19-19-19-43
               - 8192 MB PC21300 DDR4 SDRAM - Micron 8ATF1G64HZ-2G6E1
               - 8192 MB PC21300 DDR4 SDRAM - Micron 8ATF1G64HZ-2G6E1
Graphics:      Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Coffee Lake-H GT2) [DELL]
               Intel UHD Graphics 630, 1024 MB 
Graphics:      NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 [DELL]
               NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 6144 MB GDDR5 SDRAM
Drive:         CT1000MX500SSD1, 976.8 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive:         KXG50ZNV256G NVMe TOSHIBA 256GB, 250.1 GB, NVMe
Sound:         Intel Cannon Lake-H/S - cAVS (Audio, Voice, Speech) [B0]
Network:       Qualcomm/Atheros E2500 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Network:       Killer Wireless-AC 1550 Wireless Network Adapter (9260NGW) 160MHz
OS:            Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 19045.2486
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by TeraByte Support »

It typically wakes but the fbdev doesn't enable the screen again. If you start ssh (start-ssh) then you can use ssh to connect, password is ifl
The Seeker
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Adelaide

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by The Seeker »

OK, you were right in that my machine did resume (after me manually pressing the power button) but the display did not enable. I have connected via SSH as you suggested (command was start-sshd by the way) so am I to now somehow pass a command to wake my display? Or did you mean to wipe my SSD via the terminal?
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by TeraByte Support »

we had a message in to the fbdev linux maintainers but didn't get a response.. it's all within linux itself.
The Seeker
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Adelaide

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by The Seeker »

it's just that when you said I could use ssh to connect I assumed you meant once connected I could continue to use the hardware wipe feature.
The Seeker
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Adelaide

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by The Seeker »

TeraByte Support wrote: Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:02 am It typically wakes but the fbdev doesn't enable the screen again. If you start ssh (start-ssh) then you can use ssh to connect, password is ifl
You still haven't made it clear what you meant by this. Once I ssh into my laptop, where should I go from there to perform a hardware wipe?
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How is drive wiping incorporated into IFW/IFL?

Post by TeraByte Support »

It means the system does actually wake up, just that fbdev doesn't handle the wake, the screen stays dark (also happens with xvesa driver) - if you knew the keystrokes you could do it blind. If you're a super Linux user, maybe you could get the video working again. We still just have question in to fbdev about waking the screen (no response).
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