Backblaze Dispels SSD Recycling and Disposal Myths

[westrock2000]

" I found it interesting that they advised against zeroing out a drive, however."

You want to write random incompressible data, no surprises here.

I have never seen any proof of any one being able to recover a working file after a drive has received 1 pass of zero's. There have been competitions in the past to do it and no has done it.

And I certainly don't buy the "Ya, but the government has super conducting algorithms hidden a secret base in Dulce, New Mexico that can read any hard drive"

This challenge didn't even require data be recovered, you just had to tell them ONE file name that was on the drive.
http://www.hostjury.com/blog/view/195/the-great-zero-challenge-remains-unaccepted

 

[Mister E]

I think a hammer and off to recycling is fine for me. Thanks though.

 

[likeman]

sudo hdparm --user-master dick --security-set-pass balls /dev/sda
sudo hdparm --user-master dick --security-erase balls /dev/sda

BAM! Done in under 5 minutes.

I do this for all my SSDs ~once a year just to refresh them.

i assume that is the secure erase command ?

on a SSD secure erase is fast and it wipes all parts of the ssd (if its SED drive even it the HDD password has Not been set the encryption Keys are also reset before the whole drive trim+page wipe command is done)

i could understand destroying HDDs as they take over 1 hour to secure erase,, unless its a SED HDD then Secure erase just resets the keys does not wipe the platters normally under normal secure erase(as data be scrambled), unless you use the Enhanced secure erase, no need to destroy the HDD physically

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

i assume that is the secure erase command ?

on a SSD secure erase is fast and it wipes all parts of the ssd (if its SED drive even it the HDD password has Not been set the encryption Keys are also reset before the whole drive trim+page wipe command is done)

i could understand destroying HDDs as they take over 1 hour to secure erase,, unless its a SED HDD then Secure erase just resets the keys does not wipe the platters normally under normal secure erase(as data be scrambled), unless you use the Enhanced secure erase, no need to destroy the HDD physically

Yup, it is. Max I've seen it take was ~1-2 min on a 960GB OCZ Vector 180.

You also might have to do the following first :
sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda

If it says the status is Frozen, just unplug then plug back the SATA power connector, then run the command again (it should now say "Not Frozen")

 

[PaulP]

IBM only made glass HDs for a few years (1999-2003). Before that, they were all aluminum platters (I worked in the aluminum platter plating area in 99, and glass platters were still in the early-production stage at the time)



Did you by any chance work in Rochester MN?

Yes, I did.