What is the best way to Secure Erase an SSD drive on 2011 iMac with bad Video Card and Logic Board?

[dfine1966]

I need to do this so I can recycle the machine which I will bring to the Apple store. To make a long story short, my 2011 27 inch iMac Video Card and Logic Board went the second time in its lifespan. First happened in 2013. Apple would not cover the cost because the program was over. It would have cost me around $1100 to fix. The 2011 is only worth a couple of hundred dollars, so I decided to use that money to buy a brand new 2017 27 inch iMac. Luckily, I was able to connect the 2011 iMac to my new iMac in Target disk mode to get everything I needed off the hard drives. I have two internal drives that came with the 2011 iMac, a 250GB SSD and the secondary drive was a 2 TB regular HD. I know how to secure erase a regular hard drive using Disk Utility with the 7 or 35 rewrite, but I know that won't work with the SSD drive. SSD drives don't work that way, plus it will ruin the lifespan of the SSD drive. Stupid me, didn't use the FileVault on the SSD drive. I am looking for the best way to Secure Erase my SSD drive, but it most likely would have to be done through my new iMac in Target Disk Mode connected to the 2011 iMac.

I saw in some of my research that their a few options, but I am not sure which is the best way to do it.

The one I think might be the best is Parted Magic. I would buy it from them directly with the included USB flash drive already formatted with all the programs, bootable. I have heard nightmares about creating a bootable USB for this on your own. Too many steps.

Other options I have heard about:

1. Delete the SSD drive twice
2. Secure Format an SSD (or the OS X Boot Disk) via Recovery Mode

None of these last two seem to be great choices.

My question is what is the best option for securely deleting an SSD drive in a iMac. Is there another option that I haven't mention or is one of these options that I listed a good option.

Remember, I think have to delete the drives through target disk mode connected to my new iMac. I don't know if the Parted Magic flash drive, when connected to the old 2011 iMac, would show up on the screen visibly.

I appreciate any advice you can give.

 

[h9826790]

Rather than secure erase it, you can simply write some stupid big useless files onto it until it's full (it's very easy to make large useless videos as long as you pick the right codec, or you can even use those useless large files to make a even more useless very large password protected ZIP file).

I don't know there is any method can recover the old data on a SSD if it's already covered by the new data, not even in a lab. In fact, for a normal SSD, as long as TRIM is enabled, the deleted data will also be zero out (by GC), it's already very impossible to recover. If you intentionally overwrite it by rubbish data, and then erase the whole SSD again, and give enough Time for TRIM and GC to finish their job. I really don't think anyone can recovery the data.

 

[AmazingRobie]

If you're going to "recycle" the machine anyway, why not take the drive out since its an ssd and slap it in an enclosure and keep it. Even small capacity sdds can still be useful.

 

[h9826790]

If you're going to "recycle" the machine anyway, why not take the drive out since its an ssd and slap it in an enclosure and keep it. Even small capacity sdds can still be useful.

OP said that iMac worth few hundreds and he is going to use those money to buy a new one. So I suspect he is going to sell this 2011 iMac, destroy it will only lower the value.

 

[dfine1966]

If you're going to "recycle" the machine anyway, why not take the drive out since its an ssd and slap it in an enclosure and keep it. Even small capacity sdds can still be useful.

I actually thought about trying to take the drives out, but I don't feel comfortable doing it. Plus, I would have to buy all the tools to do this. I looked at the videos and didn't think I could do it.

I am not selling the iMac. I am recycling it. What I meant by it's worth was that I could only get a few hundred dollars for the 2011 27 inch if it was working correctly based on prices I see now on that year. It would cost me over 1000 to fix it. It wasn't worth it to fix. So I the money that I would have been used to fix the computer, I used to buy a new one.

I just want to find a way to securely delete the SSD drive because it was my main drive.

 

[danielwsmithee]

You’ve already connected to it via target disk mode. You just need to reformat it with the secure erase option in disk utility. It is in the security options when you erase it. Just select the fastest option since it is an SSD you won’t benefit from the higher security option that writes 10+ time to the whole drive. You can reformat/erase etc via target disk mode with disk utility.

 

[dfine1966]

You’ve already connected to it via target disk mode. You just need to reformat it with the secure erase option in disk utility. It is in the security options when you erase it. Just select the fastest option since it is an SSD you won’t benefit from the higher security option that writes 10+ time to the whole drive. You can reformat/erase etc via target disk mode with disk utility.

Secure erase is not available for SSD drive through Disk utility. Writing 0 and 1's to an SSD drive can cause problems to the drive. Apple disabled it for SSD drives

 

[wardie]

Secure erase is not available for SSD drive through Disk utility. Writing 0 and 1's to an SSD drive can cause problems to the drive. Apple disabled it for SSD drives

Will OSX know its an SSD though in target disk mode? Won’t it just see some sort of external FireWire/USB drive? It may let you do this. Just a thought.

 

[dfine1966]

Will OSX know its an SSD though in target disk mode? Won’t it just see some sort of external FireWire/USB drive? It may let you do this. Just a thought.

Haven't tried yet to see if it shows ssd in target disk mode. I would have loved to take out the drives, but don't feel good about me doing it. Right now, I ordered Parted Magic and going to try that solution first. If that doesn't work I am going to try the other solutions.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Secure erase is not available for SSD drive through Disk utility. Writing 0 and 1's to an SSD drive can cause problems to the drive. Apple disabled it for SSD drives"

Drive Genius (versions 2 and 3) will do a secure erase on an SSD (or at least, the app says it's doing one).

Perhaps TechTool Pro can do this as well.

Another thing you could try:
1. Use Disk Utility to create an empty disk image on the (old iMac's) HDD, say 249gb in size.
2. Download CarbonCopyCloner and then "clone" the image from the HDD to the SSD (you might be able to do this with DU as well).
That ought to "sufficiently write over" all the data on the SSD.

 

[AmazingRobie]

If its not too late, heres another suggestion. If im understanding correctly, you are recycling the machine without any monetary compensation, if thats the case, since this machine is prone to failure through mechanical error of its parts, take out a craigslist ad for your local area and sell it for a lump sum for parts. List the functional parts of the machine and sell it for $25-$50. Someone else with this box will know the value of a display replacement and snap it up for parts. Apple sold you a lemon and if you just give it back to them theyll either fix and donate to a third world for a tax break or sell for scrap, thus getting more of your money for the materials youve already purchased. Its your choice, but you have more options than just getting rid of it. Last post, i will drop the subject...promise...

 

[NoBoMac]

Is the SSD encrypted with FileVault? If that is the case, reformat the drive and re-install OS. Old encryption keys will be erased, and whatever data that is on there will remain encrypted.

If FileVault is not turned on, turn it on and then do above. Not sure this can be done via target mode. If that is the case, might want to look into VeraCrypt to see if you can encrypt the drive.

 

[dfine1966]

Update:I tried Parted Magic and it loaded on my Mac at first, but after loading it, all I got was a blank black screen. After waiting for a while, I had to manually turn off the mac. I tried again to boot the flash drive , but the drive didn't show up at all. I tried multiple times to boot with the flash drive, but nothing showed up. It was like the drive was there. After a while I tried it with my new computer and it didn't show up on that either, including disk utility. It turns out that the flash drive was bad. Because of this, I am sending back to Parted Magic for a refund. I was deciding if I should order Parted Magic again, but after watching videos on youtube and noticed that Parted Magic looks like it loads like a real operating system. Because of that, I don't think Parted Magic would work because my iMac has a bad video card. I believe my video card needs to be working for Secure erase to work with Parted Magic. So I am now going to try to find another way to secure erase my SSD drive. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Here is one solution someone suggested, that I should encrypt the SSD drive through thunderbolt from another mac and then delete the drive again after encrypting? Will this really work and be a secure enough delete?

 

[Earl Urley]

Latest PartedMagic (1-8-18) boots on Retina MacBooks/Pros but cannot secure erase the SSD; two methods are given for secure erase, ATA and NVMe. Selecting ATA yields no devices in list. Selecting NVMe shows the Apple SSD, but when you give permission it tells you it failed to erase the device. If you try going to sleep as the app suggests, the NVMe drops off the chain and disappears so if you try to use the NVMe Secure Erase option again, no drives show up. The developers have been notified..