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Dell Mini 9 Hardware and Upgrades Discuss Dell Mini 9 Hardware and Upgrades.
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(#1)
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| Junior Member Posts: 5 Join Date: Dec 2009 |  Securely Erasing Dell Stock SSD -
12-24-2009, 02:19 AM
I recently upgraded my Mini 9 to Super Talent's 32GB and now want to securely erase any information on the stock SSD Dell gives you. From reading various threads here and online, it doesn't seem there is any software that can be trusted to securely erase a SSD. Is this true? If so I suppose I'll have to keep the stock SSD with me until either a method of securely erasing SSDs is discovered or someone informs me how to "reset" the SSD to factory state. Thank you for your attention. |
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(#2)
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| Guru  Posts: 1,993 Join Date: Apr 2009 |
12-24-2009, 02:29 AM
A simple wipe may leave data on the drive, because of the way SSD controllers move data around. But the data will be unrecoverable by most means. The only way to completely erase a SSD is to use a utility which tells the drive to erase itself, via the ATA SECURITY ERASE command. Then trust that the drive actually erases itself. I don't know if the stock SSD supports the self-erase command. So, you might be stuck with a simple wipe (or wipes), and knowing that a serious effort may recover some fragments of data off the SSD. Mini 1012 | SSD | Intel 6200 Wifi | Ubuntu 11.10 64bit |
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(#3)
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| Super Moderator  Posts: 1,420 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: United States  |
12-24-2009, 07:07 AM
I am not sure if DBAN (Derek's Boot and Nuke) works for SSDs, but it does wonders on any standard HDD I have needed to wipe! Give it a shot. Meklort's Blog | NBI Google Code Page | osx.mechdrew.com -- the best OSX installation guides  |
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(#4)
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| Super Moderator  Posts: 5,678 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: New Hampshire |
12-24-2009, 12:58 PM
I have used DBAN on a stock SSD and it worked, but I have heard of others that had it fail. reflex is correct that some old data is likely still on the drive, but would require special tools to recover. Mini 9|2GB RAM|64GB RunCore|Intel 5300|Windows 8 |
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(#5)
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| Senior Member Posts: 158 Join Date: Jan 2009 |
12-29-2009, 04:45 AM
whats the easiest way to send the secure errase command to an ssd. I know there are performance benefits in doing so before installing an os as each sector is completely freed of data. |
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(#6)
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| Junior Member Posts: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 |
12-30-2009, 05:39 PM
Use truecrypt to encrypt the drive. Use a very long encryption key (and a keyfile, if you want to be really sure). Delete the keyfile, forget the encryption key and then format the drive as normal. |
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(#7)
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| Super Moderator Posts: 5,678 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: New Hampshire |
12-30-2009, 05:49 PM
There's no point in going through that effort - using DBAN would actually work better for that. I found this page that linked to a tool said to do a secure erase on some SSDs. You can try it and see if it claims your SSD supports the command. Mini 9|2GB RAM|64GB RunCore|Intel 5300|Windows 8 |
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(#8)
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| Expert Member Posts: 509 Join Date: Oct 2009 |
12-30-2009, 09:36 PM
What are you going to do with it, sell it, keep it as a backup? There's always the hammer method, vice method, or any other device of destruction you deem fit/fun. D:\duo\320GBHD\2GBRAM\W8DP |
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