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Thread: Bootable SSD Wiper?

  1. #17
    Super Moderator Jonj1611's Avatar
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    Re: Bootable SSD Wiper?

    Samsung bootable usb was a mess. Half the time it couldnt create the drive and when it could it wasn't bootable. Gave up with that and just used the secure erase in the bios which seemed to work
    Jon

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    Senior Member watercooled's Avatar
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    Re: Bootable SSD Wiper?

    Quote Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix View Post
    Using the manufacturer utility seems a really good idea. If the drive can be erased then that shouldn't wear the drive as much as overwriting the drive with blanking data (which will then need to be erased, burning an entire drive erase cycle).
    I'm late to the party but this is generally the method you want to use. Issuing a secure erase command to the drive will very quickly zero out the NAND cells, usually in a few seconds. Drives that use internal encryption as their scrambling algorithm will typically also erase the encryption key that was used and create a new one. Even if you haven't 'enabled' encryption on the drive - data written to the NAND is still encrypted with that key, it's just that access is not controlled. This is also why you don't always need to erase a drive to enable encryption.

    Overwriting with utilities intended for hard drives is not really necessary and just burns through write cycles unnecessarily, and potentially far more than just one write cycle due to write amplification. Even if you thoroughly distrust the drive's ability to secure erase itself, trying to zero out an SSD is kinda pointless because you can't guarantee *where* you're actually writing too due to wear levelling, and you will not touch any of the NAND in the spare areas regardless. Plus, unless you do a secure erase/TRIM afterwards, you may seriously degrade performance of the drive..

    You don't have to use manufacturer's utilities to do this though, there are tons of utilities available online capable of issuing these secure erase commands, and as other contributors have mentioned, some motherboard BIOS have built-in utilities for this now.

    One small issue with secure erase commands, is you will sometimes be unable to erase a drive because of the motherboard blocking the commands after booting - this can typically be resolved by cycling through standby, or re-plugging the drive (if SATA this is straightforward). But decent utilities should explain this process anyway.

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    Re: Bootable SSD Wiper?

    Here's how to secure wipe an SSD from BIOS.
    Enter your system BIOS / UEFI settings.
    Look for your drive and select it. ...
    Look for a Secure Erase or data wipe option. ...
    Perform the Secure Erase or wipe procedure, following any pertinent prompts or instructions that may arise.

  4. #20
    Super Moderator Jonj1611's Avatar
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    Re: Bootable SSD Wiper?

    Thanks for the replies, I actually did it as I said a couple of posts before but the information will be handy for others looking to solve the same issue
    Jon

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