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How do you destroy an SSD?
First, let's focus on some "dont's." These are tried and true methods used to make sure that your data is unrecoverable from spinning hard disk drives. But these don't carry over to the SSD world.
Degaussing – applying a very strong magnet – has been an accepted method for erasing data off of magnetic media like spinning hard drives for decades. But it doesn't work on SSDs. SSDs don't store data magnetically, so applying a strong magnetic field won't do anything.
Spinning hard drives are also susceptible to physical damage, so some folks take a hammer and nail or even a drill to the hard drive and pound holes through the top. That's an almost surefire way to make sure your data won't be read by anyone else. But inside an SSD chassis that looks like a 2.5-inch hard disk drive is actually just a series of memory chips. Drilling holes into the case may not do much, or may only damage a few of the chips. So that's off the table too.
Erasing free space or reformatting a drive by rewriting it zeroes is an effective way to clear data off on a hard drive, but not so much on an SSD. In fact, in a recent update to its Mac Disk Utility, Apple removed the secure erase feature altogether because they say it isn't necessary. So what's the best way to make sure your data is unrecoverable?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VanessaE on Friday March 17 2017, @05:35AM (22 children)
Come on, it should be pretty obvious: take the drive apart if necessary, and smash each IC thoroughly with a hammer and a center punch.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Friday March 17 2017, @05:41AM (3 children)
Take the covers off, and put a .223 through each chip.
Put that back together.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:28AM (2 children)
Bitch, please. 223 is a girl's round for toy guns. If it ain't 7.62 it ain't shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:03PM (1 child)
Yes, but x39 or x51?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @09:26PM
Either. Both!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Friday March 17 2017, @06:17AM (11 children)
Or take a heat gun, set it to some decent temperature, heat the board up and, once the solder melts, whack the board against something. The chips will fall off. Pick them up and put in a pocket. The board is harmless. Over the next few days throw the chips, one by one, into most secure random receptacles that you can think of. I cannot imagine who would be checking the whole length of city sewers for a Flash chip that was barbarically desoldered (likely killing it right there and then) and then deposited in a random bathroom at a random fast food joint (they cannot even say which ones.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by sgleysti on Friday March 17 2017, @06:26AM (7 children)
Grinding the chips into tiny little bits still seems more reliable.
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Friday March 17 2017, @08:30AM
Bingo!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @11:34AM (1 child)
There are devices that shred hard drives. That should work on SSDs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @06:50PM
FTFS: take a hammer and nail or even a drill to the [spinning-rust] hard drive and pound holes through the top. That's an almost surefire way to make sure your data won't be read by anyone else
First, that will probably leave readable data (for someone who is REALLY determined).
Next, it really bugs me when people destroy gear that is still usable.
In a significant number of cases, storage devices are being put out to pasture because of their age/size.
In years past, entire boxes became too old and underpowered for the current user.
When that gear isn't passed on to someone with lesser needs, I find that to be wasteful and I really hate wastefullness.
On a spinning-rust drive, here's a better way:
Simply overwrite[1] the data ONCE.
No one has ever demonstrated [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [slashdot.org] that this is not effective.
...and, if it actually was possible to recover that overwritten data, it would take an immense amount of money and time.
Hell, the guys who recover non-overwritten data from spinning-rust drives make giant buckets of money.
Now, if you're under a DoD[2] requirement to eradicate the data according to DoD's method, then go ahead and overwrite it SEVEN times using a different pattern of 1's and 0's each time.
You won't actually gain anything over doing it once, but you'll keep them happy.
(I'm thinking of Danny DeVito's line, "Were you toilet-trained at gunpoint?")
The only reasons to ever destroy a spinning-rust drive are:
1) the device's workings are already non-functional.
2) a (DoD[2], again) contract requires that.
[1] There are many utilities that can do this. [archive.org]
Some descriptions. [googleusercontent.com] (orig)[3] [experts-exchange.com]
The most-mentioned of these is Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), a task-specific Linux distro/bootable disk; the software is available gratis and libre.
[2] There is a reason that "military intelligence" is the most-used example of an oxymoron.
Like no other entity ever, those idiots can burn through giant piles of money while showing no useful results.
[3] The guy who bothered to include the lines which said
Minimum requirements
and
Uninstaller included?
for a bootable OS+utility on removable media really needs to buy a clue (as does the guy from whom he got that "information").
.
For SSDs, wear-leveling/spare capacity (mentioned down-thread) makes these techniques insufficient.
Extreme heat is the solution.
...and full disk encryption before you start using the device eliminates the need for actions down the road.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Kromagv0 on Friday March 17 2017, @12:44PM (1 child)
Will it Blend [willitblend.com]
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Thursday March 23 2017, @03:57PM
Man, what decade are you in?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMDMoNu66_1Hwi5-MeiQgw [youtube.com]
Hydraulic Press is where it's at now.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday March 17 2017, @09:40PM (1 child)
If the dust is disposed of properly, sure. You would absolutely not want to inhale that stuff...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @02:08AM
Well... maybe.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 17 2017, @05:19PM (2 children)
If you already have the heat gun out, just bake the chips with it until the FLASH cells are erased by thermal effects.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday March 17 2017, @06:09PM (1 child)
For how long?
To paraphrase, how do you know when you've heated the chips sufficiently?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 17 2017, @06:23PM
Ask JEDEC, I guess.
Reflow profiles in ovens are a matter of seconds at the max temp (which was a problem with RoHS chips at 260C), and taking chips through the oven more than 3 times is considered asking for trouble (not sure whether the package or the Si is the first to fail).
If you get >300C out of your heat gun and keep the chips at that temperature for a few minutes, I'm gonna guess you're pretty likely to have broken something.
Wasn't there an article a couple week ago about special Si designed to withstand Venus temps? Your FLASH ain't.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @07:01AM (5 children)
There is no component in as SSD that will survive a fire. If you want to be certain, beyond any possible doubt, use an oxy-acetylene torch, and melt it down to a little puddle of slag. But, tossing an SSD into a simple log fire should be more than sufficient. A coal fire, scrap lumber, some plastic scrap, what ever. You probably don't want to rely on a little paper fire in a trash can, that may or may not get hot enough to destroy components.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday March 17 2017, @07:48AM (3 children)
Thermite is more fun...
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Friday March 17 2017, @08:33AM (2 children)
True, but tannerite is even funner. Problem with that is, the blast might just scatter wounded chips all over the place. So yeah, thermite.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 17 2017, @10:28AM (1 child)
When in doubt, C4.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Friday March 17 2017, @09:19PM
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Friday March 17 2017, @01:37PM
I did that just the other day. I wanted to dispose of a USB flash drive. I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to securely erase it, then finally said "screw it" and tossed it into my fireplace.