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SSD Secure Erase

Maclver

Maclver

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 23, 2008
2,878
2,689
New Mexico
I have the Intel X-25 M G2 160GB and if for some reason I have to restore my comp with this SSD in it. How do I ensure that everything is erased and my SSD is not "dirty". Like brought back to a 100% state. Do I do Zero Out data?

Thanks
 
Maclver said:
isnt that the same thing as putting the OS Disk in and loading up Disk Utility off the disk, then doing Zero out data?
Click to expand...

ATA secure erasing is NOT AT ALL like zeroing out your data. In fact, the two are next to complete opposites.

Zeroing out data fills up every cell in your SSD with a 0. Remember, a 0 is not empty, it's a 0. It overwrites every cell in your SSD with a 0 so all your data is gone and you have an "empty" SSD, but the individual cells (the physical part of the SSD that stores information) has a 0 in it.

Secure erasing marks every cell as empty and brings the SSD back to factory performance, ready to write to every cell.
 
Maclver said:
isnt that the same thing as putting the OS Disk in and loading up Disk Utility off the disk, then doing Zero out data?
Click to expand...

Lol did you take a look at the link?

You need to issue the secure_erase command. The Guide I linked to is Just one way to do it.

Hdderase is another way to do it, but I don't like that method.
 
Disktester will work on a Mac, but it's not freeware. Costs like 30 dollars or something.

The only reliable free way to do it seems like issuing a secure erase command via GParted Live bootable CD.
 
I've been looking for a solution to this problem as well. This solution, while inelegant, might work as long as you have a few components on hand. If you have bootcamp and an external hard drive you should be able to follow these steps. Warning: I haven't done this yet, as my SSD is pretty new, but this will be my plan.

Clone the SSD onto the external hard drive. Boot into Windows and format the SSD to NTFS and run the free Intel SSD Toolbox software from Intel.com (to recondition the SSD). Next, boot back into OS X using the external hard drive and repartition the SSD and put but back all cloned data from the external drive.

After reading that process it seems confusing but really shouldn't take too long, provided you are familiar with these steps. This whole thing only is worth while if you already have Bootcamp and an external HDD. Otherwise you'll be paying for too much junk and could probably find a cheaper solution.
 
mstier09 said:
I've been looking for a solution to this problem as well. This solution, while inelegant, might work as long as you have a few components on hand. If you have bootcamp and an external hard drive you should be able to follow these steps. Warning: I haven't done this yet, as my SSD is pretty new, but this will be my plan.

Clone the SSD onto the external hard drive. Boot into Windows and format the SSD to NTFS and run the free Intel SSD Toolbox software from Intel.com (to recondition the SSD). Next, boot back into OS X using the external hard drive and repartition the SSD and put but back all cloned data from the external drive.

After reading that process it seems confusing but really shouldn't take too long, provided you are familiar with these steps. This whole thing only is worth while if you already have Bootcamp and an external HDD. Otherwise you'll be paying for too much junk and could probably find a cheaper solution.
Click to expand...

^ This is how I do it however format the SSD FAT32 in OS X before you go into Windows, it won't let you format it without doing that, or at-least it won't for me.
 
Yeah the FAT32 makes more sense. Its good to know that works though! Thanks for the input!
 
What the hell does this mean?

"posix reports cannot allocate memory" Im getting that in disk utility
 
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