Erasing the erased - SSD

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:56

Say I've got a drive that has been used in a mac, and thus never had TRIM, is there a way that I can fully erase the free-space on my SSD?

Writes seem ridiculously slow under windows - I thought formatting might reset it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

There must be some software that can properly erase unused space without having to wipe the whole disk?

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:57

Ccleaner

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 11:16

Are you 100% sure that will do what I want? From the description on that link, it seems to just tidy up things like browser cache etc?

Fourstar · 20 Jan 2011 at 11:20

Admiral Huddy said:
Ccleaner

Are you sure? I can only see mention that Ccleaner will secure erase files by overwriting them multiple times. /edit it does see edit 3 at the bottom of the post.

On an SSD you want to use the "Secure Erase" ATA command built into drive firmwares.

I can suggest three methods all of which have guides on the OCZ forums.

Secure Erase With bootable CD/USB Linux.. Point and Click Method
Using HDDErase within a bootable dos environment
Secure Erase From Within Linux For Windows Users

I have used the third method as I already have a linux install. Also used it again running Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD. Only takes a few moments.

/edit what drive do you have? OCZ for example provides windows tools to secure erase their drives and I think Intel has the same.

/edit 2 just noticed to only want to erase free space. I've not come across something that will do that

Maybe you could fill the drive up copying a large file multiple times then delete them all using your system that you know has TRIM enabled. You may then have to leave the drive idle for a while for the drive to clean up the free blocks.

/edit 3, I knew Huddy knew his stuff CCleaner does do what you want see this thread.

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 11:26

Will any of those tools just do free space based on the filesystem, or is it full wipe only?

The drive is a Kingston SSDNow V-Series 128GB (one of the older, slow ones - 100MB/s

)

Fourstar · 20 Jan 2011 at 11:39

MikeHiow said:
Will any of those tools just do free space based on the filesystem, or is it full wipe only?

See the link in my edit #3. Huddy was right, Ccleaner will wipe free space leaving your filesystem untouched.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2011 at 11:43

Fourstar said:
/edit 3, I knew Huddy knew his stuff CCleaner does do what you want see this thread.

Occasionally I make sense

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 11:50

Great, I'll give it a go. Just going to run Crystal Disk Mark first to do a before and after comparison.

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 14:22

I don't think this has worked, I've got a feeling that it just zeros data rather than actually deleting.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:11

How do you mean deleting.. Even a reformat doesn't physially remove data iirc.

You could try http://www.dban.org/about but you will need to reformat and re-install afterwards.

DragonQ · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:18

See if there's a Kingston utility for "wiping" the free space (they're usually called "wiper" utilities). If not, see if there's a utility for properly erasing the drive. Indilinx drives have "sanitary erase" applications and SandForce drives have "secure erase" applications. These "erases" will format the drive though so you'll need to reinstall your OS.

Fourstar · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:32

This chap in a blog entry suggests a backup, secure erase, restore using Window's inbuilt tools as an alternative to a full reinstall.

Here are another pair of tools you can try. They will consolidate all of your data to try remove as many partially filled blocks as possible then write 1's to the free blocks to return them to the "reset" condition (the same as erasing a block).

This was Kingston's stance on wiper tools a year ago:

"I'm sorry but this drive was released without TRIM support and no updates will be made available. TRIM support will be included in our next generation drives. Please know that we do not provide any cleaning/wiper utilities. My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Regards,

Julio C Andrade
Kingston Technology
Technical Support"

From http://thewindows7site.com/forum/threads/16920-Kingston-V-Series-SSD

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 15:59

I think I'm going to order a C300 and stick this drive on a popular auction site.

MikeHiow · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:53

128GB C300 ordered - lets hope this one performs a bit better

GFX-Kid · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:57

Admiral Huddy said:
How do you mean deleting.. Even a reformat doesn't physially remove data iirc.

You could try http://www.dban.org/about but you will need to reformat and re-install afterwards.

Would using this be the same us using OCZ Toolbox Secure Erase? Do you get all the performance back? What about CCleaner? If you used the wipe on there, would you get back performance from that?

Fourstar · 20 Jan 2011 at 21:49

GFX-Kid said:
Would using this be the same us using OCZ Toolbox Secure Erase? Do you get all the performance back? What about CCleaner? If you used the wipe on there, would you get back performance from that?

DBAN looks like it writes random data to the whole disk. Definately not what you want with an SSD. The OCZ Toolbox issues an ATA Secure Erase command. CCleaner will write 1's to all the free space on a partition. This the same as performing an erase returning all the blocks it writes to their pristine condition. The trouble with SSDs is once a block has been writted to it must be erased before it can be written to again and the erase process is sloooooow.

The three examples I posted above perform an ATA Secure Erase but will work for any SSD or modern HDD for that matter.

MikeHiow · 21 Jan 2011 at 11:31

Quite an improvement. By the time I've sold my old SSD, and the bits from my old system, it should have been a "free" upgrade.

Before:

After: