Sanitize erase

When you sanitize erase a drive, you remove all sensitive information from a physical drive. This includes non-volatile media, non-volatile cache, bad blocks, and overprovisioned areas. Sanitize erase operations cannot be stopped after starting, and the drive will continue to sanitize after a hot-plug or server reboot. During the sanitize erase operation, the drive is unusable until after the process is complete. After the erase completes, the drive will be kept offline to prevent access until re-enabled.

Sanitize erase methods

  • Restricted - Using the restricted sanitize method means that until a drive successfully completes the sanitize operation, it will be unusable. If a restricted sanitize operation fails, you are only allowed to start another sanitize operation, or, if the drive is under warranty, you can return it to HPE.

  • Unrestricted - Using the unrestricted sanitize method means that the drive will be recoverable in the case that the sanitize erase operation fails. User data may still be present on the drive. Not all drives support unrestricted.

NOTE:

These sanitize erase methods satisfy the requirements for the purge action set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. For more information about the purge action, see "Guidelines for Media Sanitization" at the U.S. Department of Commerce website https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-88r1.pdf.