Low-level formatting an SSD?

Just wondering what is the best way to low-level format an SSD? I'm sending one back and don't want my details accessible by the next person who might plug it in. Or at least try and significantly lessen the chances of that happening!

I've run 7 security passes through it (zero-ing?) but I've read that SSD's 'wear-leveling' may mean that the data isn't wiped, as it would be with a traditional hard drive.

I had a quick search around on Google and on the forums - There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions and some Windows based programs have been recommended but I'm currently stuck with OS X and just wondering if 7 passes will have been enough.

Thanks for any help

Use gpart maybe, not sure. Or write something the size of the SSD to it a few times.

Low level format norm does zero out all parts of the SSD also as good as running the Wriper tool (its the only option for samsung at this time but only 1-2 have needed to do that on the samsung forums where as OCZ drives need to be done every week/day or so)

what drive is it

The drive is an Intel X25-M.

intel have there own wipe tool for that drive i think

if you do an firmware update on it that wipes the drive clean as well

id put quite a lot of faith in dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/ssd && dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ssd myself

If the data is valuable enough that this option isn't secure enough, I suggest destroying the drive and purchasing a new one

the intel tool should be more then good to do it as it sets erase each cell, the 7 wipes you did to it before is more then like done it any way (do an firmware update as that has to Wipe the SSD to do it all data be gone then its more guaranteed then the 7 wipes you did as it does not use the wear leveling)

SSDs are not like HDDs once the cell has been erased it is basically close to imposable to recover

In regards to the Intel wipe tool, in what way does it run? Presumably if it wipes the SSD, it can't be a primary disk?

leexgx said:

Low level format norm does zero out all parts of the SSD also as good as running the Wriper tool (its the only option for samsung at this time but only 1-2 have needed to do that on the samsung forums where as OCZ drives need to be done every week/day or so)

what drive is it

Click to expand...

More like every 2 months if you want, it's not a must. It does not affect access speeds so it matters very little if you have/run a trim tool or not.

I'm not convinced by all the fuss over trim either, I've not done it to my vertex and can't say I've noticed a difference. Copying data to it is ludicrously quick anyway, I don't think it's the bottleneck in my system

i think its more for users who run full write disk benchmarks or fill the disk to the point there is no free space left (keep 20-30gb free), full format or other tools that wipe free space (ccleaner)

the intel tool runs in dos i think (not looked into it) and yes it will destroy all data, as it resets Every cell on the SSD to an erased state, there is No data left at all, recovery tools should not work as well as every cell would be in the same state

The tool that leexgx is referring too is called HDDErase. You then perform the "Secure Erase" command which restores the drive back to it's native performance but also completely wipes the data on the drive. Something to note though, if you're using the shipping firmware (8610) of the Intel X25-M, then the newest version of HDDErase (4.0) is not compatible with the drive and you will have to use the older 3.3 version of HDDErase as highlighted from this page here from the Long-term performance analysis of Intel Mainstream SSDs article by PC Perspective. You can download the 3.3 version of HDDErase here. (The link is also provided in the above article)

Intel have also released a firmware update (8820) for the X25-M series due to fragmentation problems. Though, this does not wipe the data on the drive as per this article here.

Now, going back to HDDErase. If you have updated the drive to the 8820 firmware, then the latest version of HDDErase (4.0) now works absolutely fine with the drive. More information about this can be found in this page here. You can download HDDErase 4.0 here. (Once again, the link to the latest version of HDDErase is also provided from the page linked to above)

Would someone be kind enough to explain to me what 'TRIM' is please, as well as why would erasing the free space on a SSD increase performance??

VortX said:

Would someone be kind enough to explain to me what 'TRIM' is please, as well as why would erasing the free space on a SSD increase performance??

Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

ah thanks, makes me wana get a flippin Intel SSD now! lol Don't have the money