this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
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I understand traditional methods don’t work with modern SSD, anyone knows any good way to do it?

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Call the devices secure erase functionality.

here’s how to do it to sata and pata devices

I don’t do some of the checking and testing in that article, I just do —security-erase-enhanced and unless it fails it’s fine.

You could also encrypt the contents and delete the key.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is the correct answer. Due to wear levelling, a traditional drive wipe program isn't going to work reliably, whereas most (all?) SSDs have some sort of secure erase function.

It's been a while since I read up on it but I think it works due to the drive encrypting everything that's written to it, though you wouldn't know it's happening. When you call the secure erase function it just forgets the key and cycles in a new one, rendering everything previously written to it irrecoverable. The bonus is that it's an incredibly quick operation.

Failing that, smash it to bits.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

And if you're hiding from a nation state ... don't trust that, smash it to bits and dispose of them at different trash collection locations 🙂