(This is part of the magician software that comes with the drive). Does anyone know if the Samsung secure erase completely wipes the drive or only deletes the the file locations & MBR? Can files be recovered like a traditional hard drive? Is there any software out there I can test to see how well the wipe worked? Thanks!
Samsung Secure Erase for SSD's
- Thread starter irq3
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Originally Posted By: irq3
(This is part of the magician software that comes with the drive). Does anyone know if the Samsung secure erase completely wipes the drive or only deletes the the file locations & MBR? Can files be recovered like a traditional hard drive? Is there any software out there I can test to see how well the wipe worked? Thanks!
Try downloading and installing Recuva. They have a free version and it will recover files that can be recovered. If it doesn't recover them you should have an answer to your question.
(This is part of the magician software that comes with the drive). Does anyone know if the Samsung secure erase completely wipes the drive or only deletes the the file locations & MBR? Can files be recovered like a traditional hard drive? Is there any software out there I can test to see how well the wipe worked? Thanks!
Try downloading and installing Recuva. They have a free version and it will recover files that can be recovered. If it doesn't recover them you should have an answer to your question.
Secure erase will zero every single sector, but do what demarpaint said if you wan the reassurance.
Just don't run regular "drive wipers" they probably won't erase the entire disk due to the disks's internal wear management, or it will heavily wear at the drive.
Just don't run regular "drive wipers" they probably won't erase the entire disk due to the disks's internal wear management, or it will heavily wear at the drive.
Yet another reason why one should always have an Ubuntu live CD kicking around:
http://mackonsti.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/ssd-secure-erase-ata-command/
http://mackonsti.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/ssd-secure-erase-ata-command/
First of all, on SSD there is no way you can tell which sectors you will be writing to when you are writing because they all map data according to wear and current condition. Some even do compression (i.e. SandForce controller based) so your data will not be written as is (to save time), so there may be hard to compress data left in the block/sector.
Others may not be overwritten if they are already at the end of life (worn out) and are mapped out of active use. Since every company implement this differently. The ONLY true way to wipe an SSD is to use a manufacturer provided software (like the Samsung Secure Erase), that use their own internal mechanism to wipe it.
This bring up a good point also on mechanical hard drive. If some of the sectors in a mechanical hard drive is "reassigned" or "reallocated", their data will stay in the drive and no LBA based writing will touch it. If you have important data on it and your enemy want to extract it, and have access to the manufacturer's development / diagnostic tool, they could extract these small section of data out. So in theory if you have an unencrypted email that lands on a reallocated sector, they may never be erased and can be extracted.
Others may not be overwritten if they are already at the end of life (worn out) and are mapped out of active use. Since every company implement this differently. The ONLY true way to wipe an SSD is to use a manufacturer provided software (like the Samsung Secure Erase), that use their own internal mechanism to wipe it.
This bring up a good point also on mechanical hard drive. If some of the sectors in a mechanical hard drive is "reassigned" or "reallocated", their data will stay in the drive and no LBA based writing will touch it. If you have important data on it and your enemy want to extract it, and have access to the manufacturer's development / diagnostic tool, they could extract these small section of data out. So in theory if you have an unencrypted email that lands on a reallocated sector, they may never be erased and can be extracted.
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