Erase a SSD for selling.

DELETED_63174 · 16 Feb 2013 at 13:56

What's the best way to do this? In the past I've normally just done a 7 pass erase on a standard HDD before selling. But when it comes to a SSD I'm not so sure.

KIA · 16 Feb 2013 at 14:40

Secure Erase.

Google <insert make & model here> secure erase

Skyboat · 16 Feb 2013 at 14:55

SSDs only need 1 pass to securely erase.

kitkat9933 · 16 Feb 2013 at 15:45

Skyboat said:
SSDs only need 1 pass to securely erase.

That's a load of ********. It is easier to recover from SSD's than Modern HDD's. Read some papers on it then see if you still believe that statement.

The easiest way to Secure erase an SSD on a Mac is go into Recovery mode, then to Disk utilty.

At first you will notice you can't secure erase on an SSD ( greyed out).

First delete all the partitions on the ssd and then reformat it using Mac OS Journeled Encrypted. Doesn't matter what password you put in. Then you should see the option to Secure erase will then be available. If you are re-selling your mac remember to boot back into recovery mode to re-install Mac OS X for the next person.

uniQ · 16 Feb 2013 at 17:33

kitkat9933 said:
That's a load of ********. It is easier to recover from SSD's than Modern HDD's. Read some papers on it then see if you still believe that statement.

Source? As you're wrong.

OP unless you're hiding some seriously dodgy material a single pass of zero's will suffice.

kitkat9933 · 16 Feb 2013 at 18:25

uniQ said:
Source? As you're wrong.

OP unless you're hiding some seriously dodgy material a single pass of zero's will suffice.

http://static.usenix.org/events/fast11/tech/full_papers/Wei.pdf

It doesn't matter what is on it, it's just to ease your mind when your device is sold on.

I have a lot of my personal life on my devices, even though all my drives are encrypted and highly personal documents (e.g. bank details) are password protected on top of this, I always make security a priority. You never know what will happen in the future, so always take steps now just in case. Or maybe it's my degree subject making me paranoid.

KIA · 16 Feb 2013 at 18:43

uniQ said:
OP unless you're hiding some seriously dodgy material a single pass of zero's will suffice.

Hell no. Secure Erase takes seconds where as zeroing takes a while, doesn't guarantee data elimination & does tax the drive.

uniQ · 16 Feb 2013 at 19:16

KIA said:
Hell no. Secure Erase takes seconds where as zeroing takes a while, doesn't guarantee data elimination & does tax the drive.

Pretty sure you would need to take the drive apart and try to read the individual chips to recover anything from a zero'd SSD drive. But I concede and zero'ing an SSD may not be the best route.