Drive Erasure

I highly recommend DBAN to erase all connected drives on a system.

Sometimes it is advantageous to just securely erase one drive on a system. The ATA command set provides for this and can do it independently of the processor. Thanks to Craig Wright for the instructions and dispelling the myths of being able to read erased drives. The result should contain the words "not frozen" Look for the word "enabled" in the output I am not responsible for people mistakenly erasing the wrong drive. Be sure you've got the right one.
 * Go root
 * Issue the hdparm command as root and check the drive is not security frozen
 * Set the security password to something
 * Confirm the drive is locked with a password
 * Issue the AT Secure Erase Command
 * When the drive is erased, the output verification will return "not enabled", check using the command: