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Is there a device that I can plug SATA disks into to erase the MBR? I know this could be done with a computer, but I'd rather have something compact, not unlike a disk duplicator. In fact I've even thought about using a disk duplicator to do this, but that would mean having to wait as long as it takes to duplicate the master disk, and since I can't find a 512-byte sata disk (edit, I haven't actually looked for one), that would be a lot of time wasted.


The reason I'd like something is that I'm doing a LOT of these disks, and the reason I'm doing this is so that I can assemble the hardware, and have them PXE boot to install the operating system. Some of these disks may be refurbished, so if there's a bootable disk installed, the BIOS may not automatically hit the PXE ROM.

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A simple USB/SATA connector and a one-liner on the command line appears to be a very quick, cheap and easy solution. You could even create some script that automatically erase the MBR if it detects a new disk on the USB/SATA bridge port.

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Thanks, that sounds like a solid plan. –  andyortlieb Nov 2 '11 at 22:12

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