[menoats]

Hooray for me I think my SSD just died. Just in time too for the 1 year 1 month anniversary of my Mini 9 purchase. I attempted to install the wonderful Ubuntu Netbook Remix edition and it gave me an error during installation. Now whenever I try partitioning the drive it gives me an error. i tried Ubuntu live, Mac OSX, & Windows 7. They all give me errors.

Does anyone have any secrets or helpful hints? Perhaps a utility with no concern for data or the well being of a drive that will format through anything. Thanks in advance even a confirmation letting me know my drive is done for will be nice.

If my SSD has passed away can someone direct me to the cheapest place to purchase a new one.

[reflex]

Don't get your hopes up, but I'd look into this: ATA Secure Erase - ata Wiki. The ATA SECURITY ERASE UNIT command asks the drive to completely erase itself. It's gonna be the most powerful way of erasing the drive.

[danmanx]

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. Perhaps you can order a new one from Runcore or Newegg or buy a slightly used one from ebay?

My Mini 9 is from Feb 2009 so I am approaching the 1 year mark myself...good luck to you!

[menoats]

Thanks for the responses both of you much appreciated. The ATA Secure Erase was exactly something like I was searching for. When I started to do the command however it said my drive is frozen. Could this be a reason while it will not partition? I am going to try the HDDErase program next since it seems it has some sort of work around. Otherwise it will be back to hdparm but I don't know what they mean by hot plug and hot swap...like removing and putting back the drive while the computer is on I am guessing?