
On 2024-03-23 10:50, Giles Orr via talk wrote:
I have, for many years, used "Darik's Boot and Nuke" on a USB stick to securely wipe spinning hard disks. It takes a long time, but I mostly understand and trust the process.
I'm now at the point that I have to wipe and dispose of SSDs, and I'm feeling a bit shaky on the methodology.
In the days of spinning disks I have used the program called 'wipe' to wipe out the contents of a hard drive. It can do multiple passes to make it (almost?) impossible to analyse the magnetic fields of the platters to recover data. To securely wipe data from an SSDs depends on how secure you need to be that the data can not be recovered. I wouldn't trust the use of any software to wipe an SSD due to their wear levelling features. The most reliable method would be to shred the drive or at least take a hammer to the chips that hold the data. -- Cheers! Kevin. https://www.patreon.com/KevinCozens | "Nerds make the shiny things that | distract the mouth-breathers, and Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 | that's why we're powerful" #include <disclaimer/favourite> | --Chris Hardwick