Resetting a USB SSD For Optimal Performance
Pulling out an older SSD device from the shelf for re-use, I realize
that because of the "weirdness" of SSD devices, I should reset the
device beofre using it to refresh the NAND storage in it. As always,
I want to do this from the Linux command line, so my first attempt was
to search the man-page of smartctl for the string erase. As this
yielded no results, it only took about 5 minutes from looking for a
solution on the Internet to actually doing it. And this without using
any LLM to do the job for me. And I even learned something new.
Trying the naive way
Searching for help on that topic quickly shows that hdparm has support
for this use case. Studying the man page shows the functionality is
in the --security-erase PWD command line flag. Trying this naively
with a joke password yield this:
dzu@krikkit:~$ sudo hdparm --security-erase PASS /dev/sdf
security_password: "PASS"
/dev/sdf:
Issuing SECURITY_ERASE command, password="PASS", user=user
SECURITY_ERASE: Input/output error
dzu@krikkit:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdf | grep -i frozen
not frozen
Ok, so something more complicated
Ok, so it seems to really use the functionality, we need to get the device into the not frozen state and this is done by actually setting a password. The man-page shows how to do this and so we use it to define our own password.
dzu@krikkit:~$ sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass reallyerase /dev/sdf
security_password: "reallyerase"
/dev/sdf:
Issuing SECURITY_SET_PASS command, password="reallyerase", user=user, mode=high
dzu@krikkit:~$
We can check if we were successful by inspectin the output of -I
(look for frozen):
dzu@krikkit:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdf
/dev/sdf:
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: TS128GESD400K
Serial Number: 20160323C86172063131
Firmware Revision: O1229A
Media Serial Num: �
Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
Supported: 9 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 9
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 250069680
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 250069680
Logical Sector size: 512 bytes
Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
Logical Sector-0 offset: 0 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 122104 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 128035 MBytes (128 GB)
cache/buffer size = unknown
Form Factor: 2.5 inch
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 1 Current = 1
Advanced power management level: disabled
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
* Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* NOP cmd
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
Advanced Power Management feature set
* SET_MAX security extension
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
* 64-bit World wide name
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Host-initiated interface power management
* Phy event counters
* READ_LOG_DMA_EXT equivalent to READ_LOG_EXT
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
Device-initiated interface power management
* Software settings preservation
* Device Sleep (DEVSLP)
* DOWNLOAD MICROCODE DMA command
* Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 8 blocks)
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
Security level high
2min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 0000000000000000
NAA : 0
IEEE OUI : 000000
Unique ID : 000000000
Device Sleep:
DEVSLP Exit Timeout (DETO): 30 ms (drive)
Minimum DEVSLP Assertion Time (MDAT): 30 ms (drive)
Checksum: correct
dzu@krikkit:~$
As we see not frozen near the end of that output, we know the last
command worked for us and we can now really erase the device. Let's
time it to document the time it needs:
dzu@krikkit:~$ time sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase reallyerase /dev/sdf
security_password: "reallyerase"
/dev/sdf:
Issuing SECURITY_ERASE command, password="reallyerase", user=user
real 0m8,784s
user 0m0,000s
sys 0m0,011s
dzu@krikkit:~$
I would say, 8 seconds is pretty fast. Let's again look at the output
of -I:
dzu@krikkit:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdf
/dev/sdf:
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: TS128GESD400K
Serial Number: 20160323C86172063131
Firmware Revision: O1229A
Media Serial Num: �
Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
Supported: 9 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 9
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 250069680
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 250069680
Logical Sector size: 512 bytes
Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
Logical Sector-0 offset: 0 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 122104 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 128035 MBytes (128 GB)
cache/buffer size = unknown
Form Factor: 2.5 inch
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 1 Current = 1
Advanced power management level: disabled
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* NOP cmd
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
Advanced Power Management feature set
* SET_MAX security extension
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
* 64-bit World wide name
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Host-initiated interface power management
* Phy event counters
* READ_LOG_DMA_EXT equivalent to READ_LOG_EXT
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
Device-initiated interface power management
* Software settings preservation
* Device Sleep (DEVSLP)
* DOWNLOAD MICROCODE DMA command
* Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 8 blocks)
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
2min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 0000000000000000
NAA : 0
IEEE OUI : 000000
Unique ID : 000000000
Device Sleep:
DEVSLP Exit Timeout (DETO): 30 ms (drive)
Minimum DEVSLP Assertion Time (MDAT): 30 ms (drive)
Checksum: correct
dzu@krikkit:~$
Summary
In order to securely erase the device, we have to define a password first and then start the erase passing in the same password again. Seems awkward, but still doable.
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