Originally Posted By: pim
hdparm -I says "2 min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT".
What does that mean?

Nothing useful. The drive simply says that it could take up to two minutes to complete. The hdparm command waits for it, though, so when the command finishes, so has the operation (for better or worse).

Mechanical drives often report _hours_ for that number, so with those it is useful, in that it tells you you have time to skip over to the rink for a game of shinny while waiting. wink

Cheers