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Geek Speak / Re: Should you secure erase an SSD before giving it away, like you should an HDD?
« on: 01/02/2023 20:50:38 »
There are legends about spooks who could read the data previously stored on a hard-disk, by reading the stray data "between" the tracks.
- Hence the idea of overwriting every sector with random data, multiple times, approaching from multiple directions, to also overwrite the "stray" data between the tracks.
I do not know whether the spook art has progressed to the point of sawing open the chips and counting the electrons on an EEPROM NAND gate, and determining whether that cell previously contained a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 before it was overwritten
- I am sure that spooks would attempt this procedure if they had the opportunity to read the guidance software of a missile - before it has been erased.
Overwriting the every sector multiple times will cause wear on the SSD - but apparently they are rated at 100,000 write cycles, so not too much wear.
- As sectors wear out, they are put on a "do not use" list, and the result is that the disk capacity slowly decreases (and you might lose an occasional file which suddenly couldn't be recovered)
- I suggest that for an SSD, it is sufficient to use a tool which overwrites every sector once
See (other brands are available): https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/pc-performance/nand-flash-technology-and-ssd
- Hence the idea of overwriting every sector with random data, multiple times, approaching from multiple directions, to also overwrite the "stray" data between the tracks.
I do not know whether the spook art has progressed to the point of sawing open the chips and counting the electrons on an EEPROM NAND gate, and determining whether that cell previously contained a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 before it was overwritten
- I am sure that spooks would attempt this procedure if they had the opportunity to read the guidance software of a missile - before it has been erased.
Overwriting the every sector multiple times will cause wear on the SSD - but apparently they are rated at 100,000 write cycles, so not too much wear.
- As sectors wear out, they are put on a "do not use" list, and the result is that the disk capacity slowly decreases (and you might lose an occasional file which suddenly couldn't be recovered)
- I suggest that for an SSD, it is sufficient to use a tool which overwrites every sector once
See (other brands are available): https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/pc-performance/nand-flash-technology-and-ssd
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