Mark F wrote:

> Re: "How many overwrites for secure erase?"
>
> I didn't see any mention of the fact that for most disks there
> isn't a way to erase revectored (i.e., replaced) blocks.
>
> I looked at "Serial ATA Specification V2.6",
> dated 15-February-2007, file name:
> SerialATA_Revision_2_6_Gold.pdf
> (Available to members or for sale at:
> https://www.sata-io.org/secure/spec_download.asp)
> and found that the operation of the ERASE and ERASE UNIT commands
> were not specified, so, in the absence of a manufacturer's
> specification for a particular disk model, one can't be sure
> that anything in a sector that has been marked defective is
> touched at all.


SCSI doesn't have such commands either, but it has READ DEFECT LIST and
WRITE RAW SECTOR.