Background:
I got some malware in Windows, possibly a rootkit or bootkit. I didn't want to take any chances, so foolishly wiped my drive with DBAN (PRNG, 8 pass). Later came to know that DBAN does not kill HPA (Host Protected Area) orand DCO (Drive Configuration Overlay) which are "hidden areas" used by some hard drives.
I saw that HDDErase made by CMRR can remove the HPA and DCO if present, but the project was stopped in 2005 or 2007. So, I came to Linux's hdparm
in the hope that it will wipe my HDD 100% clean so that I can install Windows again on a 100% clean hard drive. As an aside, I also looked at "BC Wipe Total Wipeout" which does HPA and DCO removal but costs $50.
I'm an average computer user with little Bash skill i.e I don't really know what I am doing.
Questions:
My drive is a 320GB 7200RPM Seagate drive.
The output of sudo hdparm --dco-identify /dev/sda
:
/dev/sda:
DCO Revision: 0x0001
The following features can be selectively disabled via DCO:
Transfer modes:
mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6(?)
Real max sectors: 625142448
ATA command/feature sets:
SMART self_test error_log security HPA 48_bit
(?): selective_test conveyance_test write_read_verify
(?): WRITE_UNC_EXT
SATA command/feature sets:
(?): NCQ interface_power_management SSP
What does this output mean? How do I ensure that there is no possibility of malware remaining on the HPA DCO?
Is there a way to find out the size in terms of GB instead of sectors?
Will
hdparm
do a complete wipe of all malware that resides in the HPA and DCO?
I also saw this on the Wiki page and was a little worried:
hdparm has a more serious drawback: it can crash a computer and make data on its disk inaccessible if certain parameters are misused. Out of approximately sixty-seven parameters, several are dangerous and could result in "massive filesystem corruption" when used indiscriminately.