Security erase Drobo V2

Forum History Direct Attached Storage (DAS) Forums
1

I’ve replaced my Drobo V2 with a 5D. In the process, I “stole” a 4TB drive from the V2 and and happily using it in the 5D.

So, the V2 is left with three green lights (the original disks) and one red light (where the 4TB drive used to be). This is still viable, albeit without data protection. I want to give this Drobo to my friend, but I don’t want to give all my data away with it.

I tried a format, but was told that it couldn’t be formatted…
I did a reset, but this still left me with the 3-green/one red scenario.
So, I tried another format. It’s taking a long time (more than 10 minutes as I type) and I suspect that it’s in Data Protection mode, recovering my data onto the remaining three drives - a tight fit! I got a popup saying it was low on storage, but because the format is under way, I can’t confirm this.

Seeing as I don’t want any of the data on the V2, I’m tempted to turn it off, remove the disks one at a time, and full-format them in my USB3 caddy. Will the V2 still know about my old filesystem after that?

2

dban may be worth a look to clean your drives (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/) its free for home use

3

I’ve used dban in the past, but had forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder. I’ve also used sledgehammers/hacksaws.

Dban’s probably faster than the Windows format that I’m using at the moment. I was thinking that the format might find/repair any bad sectors, but I suspect I missed the opportunity to specify this action. It’s probably in some “Advanced” choice which I didn’t notice.

I’m not paranoid about my data, and after a windows format, then using the drives back in my Drobo V2 for a while, it will be safe enough.

4

Swifty,

I’d do what you suggested: pull the drives and low-level format them in a caddy.

Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.