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I've finished migrating data from several drives on to one newer disk. The older drives were a mix of old mechanical drives, thumb (flash) drives, and SSDs.

Now I will dispose of the worthless drives and sell the rest. In order to sell the drives, I should be completely sure that the data cannot be recovered (e.g. by a scammer, blackmailer, or pryer).

On each drive, I have deleted all the files.

What else needs to be done?

stevec
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  • @SteffenUllrich thanks! It looks like old info, as the link in the top answer is to way back machine. I'll have a thorough read. TBH what I was hoping for is basically a case statement to the effect of: if flash drive do X, if SSD do Y, if spinning disk do Z, (more here). (and with links to the program/s). That way it is immediately actionable for practical use. – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:10
  • @mentallurg super interesting, but again, not very actionable. (also, I *am* very interested in **how** to certainly delete/make unrecoverable, not just how to detect whether I have successfully done so). – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:19
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    Just because the info is not in a format you prefer does not make it not a direct answer to your question. The question itself provides step-by-step guidance. Destroy thumb drives and SSDs. Use secure erase functions on HDDs – schroeder Mar 13 '21 at 16:23
  • *Just because the info is not in a format you prefer does not make it not a direct answer to your question* - I agree. If there's a way to distinguish my question from the linked, please suggest. I'm after strictly actionable advice (i.e. what program to download for each type of drive, and what to do once downloaded). Not theoretical (although the theoretical is *much* more interesting, but it may not be as useful to solve the current problem) – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:25
  • As I said, it provides actionable advice. We do not do tutorials or recommend tools. – schroeder Mar 13 '21 at 16:27
  • @schroeder not enough. – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:27
  • @schroeder it's not obvious (at least to me), why a program couldn't write over every single bit of space on a drive in order to be completely sure the previous data couldn't be recovered (as opposed to destroying it physically) – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:28
  • @schroeder as in, why waste a drive like that? Seems unsustainable when some basic techniques/effort could make that hardware useful to someone else (safely) – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:29
  • @schroeder I'll do some more reading when I get a chance and perhaps distill it into a 'layperson's' answer (more suitable for someone like me) – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:30
  • SSDs can't get fully over-written. That's in the linked materials. HDDs can. – schroeder Mar 13 '21 at 16:36
  • @schroeder doesn't [this](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/199643/211696) completely contradict the idea that an SSD cannot be affected such that one set of its previous contents is unrecoverable? As in, it literally says "No, you cannot recover any data from that disk." – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:39
  • @schroeder I think this is possibly a case of the theoretical getting in the way of the practical. As in, it's theoretically possible for me right now to guess 1000 people's credit card numbers perfectly and go on a shopping spree. But the *practical* reality is that's a 1/(\*illion) chance... So, while *theoretically* possible, it's *practically* impossible. – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:41
  • @schroeder and as I mentioned, the theoretical is a lot more interesting and enduring, but security is not just for theory. It can be incredibly useful for regular folk too. Would you object if I were to raise this in meta? – stevec Mar 13 '21 at 16:43
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    Then you want a simple solution to a complex problem. It is theoretically possible to recover data from an SSD. The practical response to that is to destroy the drive. If you want to know how to reliably make the data unrecoverable, then you need to get into the theory for why it's possible to recover the data. You can't have your cake and eat it too. The simple answer is to destroy the drive. The complex, theoretical answer requires ... theory. – schroeder Mar 13 '21 at 16:58
  • @schroeder reading/thinking more about this, do you think a question like "How to make data recovery as difficult as possible without physically destroying the drive?" would be worthwhile? The problem is, I have this exact problem, and I'm sure a lot of others would too, and I don't have access to a [hammer](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/100110/211696), [drill](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/127218/211696) or [thermite](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/167841/211696) - I am limited to data destruction by via software only. – stevec Mar 14 '21 at 20:00

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