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How to secure erase your SSD's on a Mac

Cloudane said:
Worked fine on my 2008 Macbook Pro unibody, with Intel X25M G2 SSD.

Essentially I just followed Step 4 (the ATA reset command link) from a livecd boot of Ubuntu 10.04. To unfreeze the drive I simply closed the lid until the MBP was asleep and then reopened it. Sure enough it said "not frozen" when I issued the hdparm command after that, and away I went with the rest of the commands.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing... this sounds like a great way to unfreeze the drive without having to remove it. I'll add it to the main post! :)
 
Great :)

Obviously if you reboot it'll re-freeze the drive as part of the POST process (or whatever they call it in EFI). So for the sleep method you need a distro that supports sleep/wake on your Mac model... I've not tested gparted, but I knew that Ubuntu supports it on mine which is why I went straight for that instead. YMMV as sleep support on Linux can be a bit hit and miss.
 
Cloudane said:
Great :)

Obviously if you reboot it'll re-freeze the drive as part of the POST process (or whatever they call it in EFI). So for the sleep method you need a distro that supports sleep/wake on your Mac model... I've not tested gparted, but I knew that Ubuntu supports it on mine which is why I went straight for that instead. YMMV as sleep support on Linux can be a bit hit and miss.
Click to expand...

Ah... ok... I didn't realize you were using Ubuntu. Perhaps someone can try this technique with the gparted disk mentioned in post #1 and see if this works?
 
Cloudane said:
Great :)

Obviously if you reboot it'll re-freeze the drive as part of the POST process (or whatever they call it in EFI). So for the sleep method you need a distro that supports sleep/wake on your Mac model... I've not tested gparted, but I knew that Ubuntu supports it on mine which is why I went straight for that instead. YMMV as sleep support on Linux can be a bit hit and miss.
Click to expand...

How do you do this with Ubuntu? is it easier that the Gparted?
 
VirtualRain said:
Ah... ok... I didn't realize you were using Ubuntu. Perhaps someone can try this technique with the gparted disk mentioned in post #1 and see if this works?
Click to expand...

it's the same debian kernel pretty much, should work fine with gparted, unless they neutered it on purpose.
 
Ok I have access to a Dell Inspiron 1545 if I reformat the SDD to windows stick it inthe windows machine can I secure erase it that way? If so how? (Intel X25-M G2)
 
Maclver said:
Ok I have access to a Dell Inspiron 1545 if I reformat the SDD to windows stick it inthe windows machine can I secure erase it that way? If so how? (Intel X25-M G2)
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You can first try to use Intel's DOS/command-line utility HDDerase from a bootable CD and your SSD connected to the Dell main board SATA connectors. If this works, it would be the quickest/easiest method.

If that doesn't work, which is possible for a number of reasons related to the specific computer and BIOS you're working on, you could reformat the drive to NTFS and TRIM it under Windows 7, which should restore it to factory condition. But I'm afraid I'm not familiar with exactly how to invoke trim on Windows 7 (manually or automatically), someone else will have to chime in on that.
 
Maclver said:
How do you do this with Ubuntu? is it easier that the Gparted?
Click to expand...

Gparted is only necessary for figuring out what the correct device is for your drive (e.g. /dev/sda) for when issuing the commands in step 4. Using an ubuntu live disk, there should be a partition manager in the menus, or just figure it out by starting the installer and going through the install steps until it gets to partitioning the HDD.

If in any doubt, make sure the SSD is the only hard drive connected so you don't wipe another one by mistake, and doing that it should almost certainly be '/dev/sda'

The commands are otherwise the same (from a terminal) *except* you should issue the command "sudo su" first, because Ubuntu runs with non admin permissions.
 
Ok Im sorry Im a noob when it comes to this. How do I create a bootable CD with HDDerase 3.3 on it through Mac OSX and have it readable on Windows?

and after that do I:

Format SSD as FAT 32
Stick in Dell
Load up HDDerase
Follow on screen prompts
secure erase SSD?

EDIT: I found this tutorial:

1. Download HDDErase (http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml) and copy it on a bootable USB drive

2. Shut down your system and uninstall all drives from your machine. Yes, that includes the SSD you'd like to erase.

3. Boot up your system again, enter the BIOS and change your SATA controller settings to Compatible/Legacy IDE. Also, align your boot priority to make sure you boot off the USB drive.

4. Save & Exit, restart your system and boot off your USB drive.

5. As soon as you see the DOS command prompt, reinstall the SSD you wish to erase.

6. Execute HDDErase

But how do I "change your SATA controller settings to Compatible/Legacy IDE? Also if i do it via the way of the tutorial do I have to format my ssd first to make it readable on a PC?
 
Maclver said:
Ok Im sorry Im a noob when it comes to this. How do I create a bootable CD with HDDerase 3.3 on it through Mac OSX and have it readable on Windows?

<snip>

But how do I "change your SATA controller settings to Compatible/Legacy IDE? Also if i do it via the way of the tutorial do I have to format my ssd first to make it readable on a PC?
Click to expand...

LOL... if you don't really know what you're doing, and know your way around the Dell's BIOS, then I suggest you stick with the solution I posted in the OP... it sounds like you've already wasted more time trying to do it this way, than if you had just followed the instructions in post #1 from the get go. :)
 
Cloudane said:
Gparted is only necessary for figuring out what the correct device is for your drive (e.g. /dev/sda) for when issuing the commands in step 4. Using an ubuntu live disk, there should be a partition manager in the menus, or just figure it out by starting the installer and going through the install steps until it gets to partitioning the HDD.

If in any doubt, make sure the SSD is the only hard drive connected so you don't wipe another one by mistake, and doing that it should almost certainly be '/dev/sda'

The commands are otherwise the same (from a terminal) *except* you should issue the command "sudo su" first, because Ubuntu runs with non admin permissions.
Click to expand...



Thank you thank you thank you I can confirm this works with ubuntu just close the lid and bam un frozen worked like a charm!!!!! Thank you cloudane
 
Maclver said:
Thank you thank you thank you I can confirm this works with ubuntu just close the lid and bam un frozen worked like a charm!!!!! Thank you cloudane
Click to expand...

Good stuff. Glad you got it sorted. Thanks for reporting back.

It would be great if someone can try the sleep trick using the gparted disc to see if that's a viable way to unfreeze the SSD with the disc image linked in Post #1.
 
tried the sleep trick with gparted, didn't seem to work.
onto ubuntu now.

done! took less than a second for the actual erase!
hmmm... but i need to type "sudo -insert command-" for it to work...
 
As Cloudane mentioned in post #108 above, you need to elevate privileges to root with "sudo..." on Ubuntu.

Can you guys link me to an Ubuntu ISO and I'll check it out and add this to the guide?
 
screwed up my install, ran another time.
it's kinda cool to see ubuntu working on your mbp (imho)

ran a total of 3 times (from the time of incidence -zero erase- till the current install) hope it does not kill my poor corsair f60!

loving the snappiness of things!
 
How do we request that this thread becomes a sticky? and does doing a Secure erase multiple times like the post above mess up the SSD?
 
Maclver said:
How do we request that this thread becomes a sticky? and does doing a Secure erase multiple times like the post above mess up the SSD?
Click to expand...

All a secure erase does is tell the drives controller to mark all NAND blocks as free. It doesn't write anything or read anything so it's not causing any wear and tear or anything else.
 
wilflare said:
hmm in other words, the data on these blocks aren't really removed or anything right?
Click to expand...

No... I think currently there is data on there and the when you send the command to secure erase it empties the cell and marks free as in ready to use....
 
Maclver said:
No... I think currently there is data on there and the when you send the command to secure erase it empties the cell and marks free as in ready to use....
Click to expand...

I did some further searching and can't find any useful info on whether the secure erase just clears the page table for the drive or also reverse charges every cell to reset it to the default uncharged state.

At any rate, i wouldn't worry about doing a few secure write operations here or there, but I guess I wouldn't suggest writing a batch job to do it 100000 times in a row. :)
 
hi ive been trying to do this on ubuntu but when i enter the commands.. it tells me "permission denied" i looked up the HD name via Gpart and im /dev/sda. From there i closed the lid waited for it to sleep then opened the lid again. reentered the command sudo -i /dev/sda . still "permission denied... PLEASE HELP i know im doing something wrong!
 
iMiggz said:
hi ive been trying to do this on ubuntu but when i enter the commands.. it tells me "permission denied" i looked up the HD name via Gpart and im /dev/sda. From there i closed the lid waited for it to sleep then opened the lid again. reentered the command sudo -i /dev/sda . still "permission denied... PLEASE HELP i know im doing something wrong!
Click to expand...

Cloudane suggested using "sudo su" to preface each command... not sure if that makes any difference? I'm not the UNIX guru I use to be :( Let us know.
 
yeah im still in the same predicament. from my understanding you do not have to but the SSD in an enclosure. you can keep it in the macbook and run the ubuntu via cd optical drive. because thas what i did and it didnt seem to work out
 
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