Patent Application
20080028141
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further purposes and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying figures, wherein:
With reference now to the figures, and in particular with reference to
As an operating system runs on processor 102 and is used to coordinate and provide control of various components within data processing system 100 in
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in
If hard disk drive 126 is not capable of supporting the secure erase process, an error message is generated and the process ends, as depicted in steps 208 and 240. If the device is found to support the secure erase capability, the process continues to step 206, which illustrates processor 102 initializing hard disk drive state tables 140a-b to a known state.
The process continues to step 210, which illustrates processor 102 evaluating whether a verification of the data pattern that was written during the overwrite pass is required. If a verification is not required, the process continues to step 212, which illustrates processor 102 initiating an overwrite pass. The overwrite pass is initiated by sending a command to hard disk drive 126 to write a specified data pattern to all user-accessible sectors including those that have been reallocated due to media errors. The process continues to step 214, which depicts processor 102 via SCSI host bus adapter 112 querying hard disk drive 126 to determine the status of the overwrite process, at specified time interval T. If the overwrite pass has been completed, the process proceeds to step 218, which illustrates processor 102 updating hard disk drive state tables 140a-b with the results of the completed overwrite pass.
Returning to step 210, if processor 102 determines that the verification of the data pattern that was written during the overwrite pass is required, then the process proceeds to step 220, which illustrates processor 102 initiating an overwrite with verification pass. The overwrite pass with verification is initiated by processor 102 via SCSI host bus adapter 112 by sending a command to hard disk drive 126 to write a specified data pattern to all user-accessible sectors, include those sectors that have been allocated due to media errors, followed by a verification read of all of the updated sectors to validate that the applied data pattern is present in all of the sectors written.
The process then proceeds to step 222, which depicts processor 102 via SCSI host bus adapter 112 querying hard disk drive 126 to determine the status of the overwrite with verify process. The process continues to step 224, which illustrates processor 102 evaluating the results of the status query to determine if the overwrite pass with verify has been completed. If the overwrite with verification pass has not been completed, the process returns to step 222 and completes a new wait interval of time T. If the overwrite pass with verify has been completed, the process continues to step 218, which illustrates processor 102 updating hard disk drive state tables 140a-b with the results of the completed overwrite with verify pass.
The process proceeds to step 230, which illustrates processor 102 determining if the secure erase process of hard disk drive 126 has been completed. If the secure erase process has not been completed, the process returns to step 210 and continues in an iterative fashion. If the secure erase process has been completed, the process ends, as illustrated at step 240.
As discussed, the present invention includes a method, system, and computer-usable medium for implementing a hard disk drive data clear and purge. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a processor sends a predetermined data pattern to be written to a hard disk drive and issues a command for the hard disk drive to write the predetermined data pattern to an entire surface of the hard disk drive. The hard disk drive updates the entire surface with the predetermined data pattern and the processor verifies that the entire surface of the hard disk drive is updated with the predetermined data pattern.
It should be understood that at least some aspects of the present invention may alternatively be implemented in a computer-usable medium that contains a program product. Programs defining functions in the present invention can be delivered to a data storage system or a computer system via a variety of signal-bearing media, which include, without limitation, non-writable storage media (e.g., CD-ROM), writable storage media (e.g., hard disk drive, read/write CD-ROM, optical media), system memory such as, but not limited to Random Access Memory (RAM), and communication media, such as computer and telephone networks, including Ethernet, the Internet, wireless networks, and like network systems. It should be understood, therefore, that such signal-bearing media when carrying or encoding computer readable instructions that direct method functions in the present invention represent alternative embodiments of the present invention. Further, it is understood that the present invention may be implemented by as a system having means in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware as described herein or their equivalent.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Furthermore, as utilized in the specification and the appended claims, the term “computer” or “system” or “computer system” or “computing device” includes any data processing system including, but not limited to, personal computers, servers, workstations, network computers, main frame computers, routers, switches, personal digital assistants (PDAs), telephones, and any other system capable of processing, transmitting, receiving, capturing, and/or storing data.
