When use the fasterase function of mhdd 3.0, the notification appears"fast erase ussing security functions V1.1 drive should be locked with known password first". Pleas help me what is the known password?
What the differencese between fasterase and erase?
Than yuo!

You have to lock your drive with any password you know before making "fasterase".
Difference is speed.

Thank you! You means the first thing should using lock command and after fasterasing using unlock and dispwd to delete the pwd.

Hello there. I'm a new user of MHDD program. I'd would like to ask how to use the "FASTERASE" feature. I really dont understand to run it. Please kindly guide me how to use it? Thanks you very much.

To erase :

1) Issue LOCK
2) Select 0 (user)
3) type a password es. 1234
4) Issue EID command to verify the locking. PWD will lit and the warning "drive is locked with ATA password" will appear
5) at this point issue FASTERASE
6) type the user password in this case 1234
7) wait a few seconds and MHDD will show "OK FASTERASE STARTED"... otherwise the entered PW is incorrect.
wait until BSY turns off. You can be warned with a beep issuing WAIT command (the pc wll beep when the drive is not busy anymore)
9) the drive is erased.

Most drives unlock automatically after fasterase, other have to be UNLOCKed (issue UNLOCK command and type user or master pwd.) then DISPWD.
Turn off then on the drive and you'll see the drive is not locked anymore.

FASTERASE uses internal security functions so is much faster than erasing the LBAs . It took me about 40 min. for a Maxtor 160GB. , may vary depending on brand and capacity.

Hi,
160gb=40mins
I don't use mhdd very often so i have to ask if the erase function in this case (fasterase) is a format or low level format or a security wipe?
Would it posible to recover any data after using this function?

Not a "format" neither "low level" : it's an INTERNAL function of the HDD that erase the content of LBA blocks (zerofill style). Therefore, data will be unrecoverable.

Thanks for the great write up! However, I am using the latest download as of the date of this posting and STEP #1 does not even work? There is no LOCK command?

Does anyone know of another way to get fasterase to work?

Much appreciation!

As this updated post says.

1) Issue PWD

I've tried following the instructions to erase the drive. When I attempt to issue a password I get "failed". Any ideas?

Yes. Wrong procedure or wrong pw (trying only to unlock by a chance?)