article on SSD drives.

[chama98]

Hi.

need some advice on this. I was told that there is no need to securely erase a SSD. However after reading this I am confused! http://www.techradar.com/news/compu...&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer-trfb

Can someone put me straight?

Cheers

 

[Weaselboy]

I think where the confusion has come from is it is a bit harder to recover deleted data from an SSD, but it is still possible.

The problem is on OS X, Apple has disabled the secure erase option in Disk Utility, presumably to prevent unnecessary write cycles to the SSD storage cells.

So if you have data you want to make extra sure it cannot be recovered, you need to make a Linux boot disk and run the ATA secure erase command from there. This is not the same as the Disk Utility secure erase process.

Another option, and the one I suggest, is to turn on FileVault encryption on your SSD, then erase the encrypted drive. Nobody is going to be able to recover anything from that. Even if someone uses a utility and manages to restore some of what you erased, it would still be encrypted and unreadable.

 

[chscag]

I think where the confusion has come from is it is a bit harder to recover deleted data from an SSD, but it is still possible.

I've read in another forum if TRIM is used with an SSD that deleted data can not be recovered. Is that true?

 

[BorderingOn]

Many SSDs have hardware encryption but I haven't found info on whether Apple supports it, whether using a third party SSD on an older Mac or the OEM SSD on newer Macs. Seems that would be secure while saving the overhead of FileVault.

 

[Weaselboy]

I've read in another forum if TRIM is used with an SSD that deleted data can not be recovered. Is that true?

My understanding is that having TRIM on makes it much more difficult, but I see companies still claiming they can recover some data anyway. So who knows.

I always play is safe and just encrypt with FV then erase after to be certain.