[SOLVED] Is "clean" enough to erase a SSD for resale?

[box o rocks]

I'm wondering if the "clean" command is enough for wiping the SSD for resale. Or do I have to use the "clean all" command? My SSD is a no-name that has no software for this process.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm wondering if the "clean" command is enough for wiping the SSD for resale. Or do I have to use the "clean all" command? My SSD is a no-name that has no software for this process.

Yes.
Unless you're selling it to the NSA/FBI/GCHQ/FSB. In which case you should just put it through a shredder.

 

[fzabkar]

You can use a free disc editor (eg DMDE) to view the contents of the drive. If TRIM is working correctly, most drives will return a zero-fill pattern for every sector. Some SSDs can be cryptoerased in a matter of seconds.

 

[CountMike]

Clean command deletes all partitions making data irretrievable by ordinary means. Using programs like https://dban.org/ is next step as it overwrites all data several times. For best results you can encrypt whole disk before erasing data. That puts 2 walls in front of anybody trying to retrieve data, first it would have to restore data and than to break encryption.

 

[USAFRet]

Clean command deletes all partitions making data irretrievable by ordinary means. Using programs like https://dban.org/ is next step as it overwrites all data several times. For best results you can encrypt whole disk before erasing data. That puts 2 walls in front of anybody trying to retrieve data, first it would have to restore data and than to break encryption.

DBAN is not recommended for an SSD.
Says that right on their website.

 

[CountMike]

Just one pass should be enough and will not hurt anything. I don't know if it's a Samsung drive but Samsung Magician also has same function.

 

[USAFRet]

Just one pass should be enough and will not hurt anything. I don't know if it's a Samsung drive but Samsung Magician also has same function.

If the creators of a particular tool say to not use it on a particular type of device, I'm going to heed their warning.
"It cannot detect or erase SSDs ..."

Especially in light of multiple other ways to do the same thing.

 

[CountMike]

Only reason would be that it does more writes to disk but all other "Safe erase" programs do that, write over with some nonsequical data or write 0s and apart from physically destructing disk is most secure way. I did it several times and didn't kill any SSD. I'm not saying it has to be done but it is what it is. Same thing could be accomplished by filling disk with some unimportant files so it overwrites all cells.

 

[box o rocks]

Does the CLEAN ALL command do an actual erase, then? As opposed the CLEAN command that simply marks the partition as empty while the data still exists?