IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [ssd]

A solid-state drive (SSD, also known as a solid-state disk although it contains neither an actual disk nor a drive motor to spin a disk) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently.

85 questions
90
votes
1 answer

Wiping an SSD with Parted Magic seemed too quick

I'm selling a computer with an SSD (it's a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1). I wiped the drive using Parted Magic. I used the ATA method. I'm not sure what that is but it was the only setting available. It said it would take two minutes but the wipe was…
user1102550
  • 981
  • 1
  • 10
  • 15
46
votes
8 answers

Have I properly destroyed my SSD?

I held every chip (without desoldering, they were still onboard) in a lighter flame for a minute or two. They started "popping" a little if that indicates anything. Then I drove a nail into every chip (approximately through the center) with the…
ThrowawayGuest10
  • 509
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
29
votes
5 answers

Does the destruction of sensitive information limit the choice of hard drives to non-flash based devices?

Working with a non-profit organization,it's common to reuse hard drives that have previously stored highly sensitive information such as medical and financial records. This is primarily driven by cost-saving measures to reduce purchasing new hard…
Motivated
  • 1,493
  • 1
  • 14
  • 25
19
votes
2 answers

How secure is hardware Full disk encryption (FDE) for SSD's

Is there any research as to how secure hardware encryption of SSD's is - for example Samsung EVO 850? Or at least any articles that explain how it works?
kat
  • 411
  • 1
  • 3
  • 11
17
votes
3 answers

Is there a real-world example of SSD data recovery?

Secure data deletion is known to be more complicated and elusive on a solid-state drive than for a regular hard drive. For instance, the logical block mapping on the SSD's flash translation layer makes it impossible to reliably overwrite specific…
Arminius
  • 43,922
  • 13
  • 140
  • 136
10
votes
3 answers

How to erase as much as possible an SSD without ATA Secure Erase?

The question is almost completely answered. However, more details are still needed. See Update 2 down here. I've learnt that the ATA Secure Erase is uncorrectly implemented in SSDs (sources are down here), but I'm still willing to find a way to…
X.LINK
  • 151
  • 1
  • 6
9
votes
2 answers

Using FileVault on a Mac with existing data

I have recently got a Mac which I have started using already without any encryption while looking for the best solution. I have come to the conclusion that using Mac's own file encryption technology FileVault will be meet my requirements and easiest…
Imran
  • 1,015
  • 2
  • 8
  • 9
9
votes
1 answer

Should I trust that the Android factory reset actually erases my data?

I bought a Galaxy S20 Fe, logged my LastPass in it and all of my accounts (google, twitter, etc). Now it has a malfunction and I'm going to have to send it back to get my money back. When I factory reset an Android, I presume that it zeroes the…
Guerlando OCs
  • 405
  • 4
  • 14
7
votes
1 answer

Is GNU shred relevant for SSDs?

The Gutmann method, which apparently is used by GNU shred, has appeared in 1996, which focused on finding random 5 to 31 patterns and taking into account particular magnetic encoding. Considering that now we have SSDs, I'm guessing that Gutmann…
Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
  • 519
  • 5
  • 17
7
votes
1 answer

Does the ATA Trim command irrecoverably delete data on an SSD?

I occasionally see people reference the difficulty of deleting data from an Solid State Disk. Because of the nature of SSDs (wear leveling, etc), simply writing to the same sector of the disk doesn't guarantee that it's deleted. But modern…
Steve Sether
  • 21,480
  • 8
  • 50
  • 76
6
votes
2 answers

Is it possible to take an image of the firmware of HDD and SSD?

I suspect that both my HDD and SSD may be infected. Is it possible to take an image of the firmware? How do I go about doing it?
ssdhddinfected
  • 139
  • 8
5
votes
1 answer

Does formatting an SSD securely delete all data?

This article on thomas-krenn.com states: Because an ATA trim will be performed by NTFS with Windows 7 or when formatting using Ext4 from mke2fs 1.41.10 or XFS from xfsprogs 3.1.0, the secure erase procedure is no longer necessary [...]. From my…
Matthias Braun
  • 421
  • 3
  • 12
5
votes
2 answers

How does full disk encryption cater for overprovisoned disk space in flash devices and can this result in data leakage?

My understanding is that flash based devices such as SSDs are over-provisioned and do not advertise the additional blocks of storage available to the operating system. The over-provisioned blocks of storage is to support effective distribution of…
Motivated
  • 1,493
  • 1
  • 14
  • 25
5
votes
1 answer

SSD Erasure verification

I was hoping someone would be able to give some advise on what would be the best way to verify that an SSD has been erased completely. We are currently using Blancco v5 and even though it says it has been successful is there a way to manually check…
Bradley
  • 51
  • 1
  • 3
4
votes
1 answer

Data recovery from TRIMmed SSDs

Assuming a given SSD supports TRIM, and is on a physical bus that supports sending that command, and the connected computer is running an OS that is aware of TRIM: If the drive is formatted, or has had its files erased, will the data be…
craig65535
  • 143
  • 4
1
2 3 4 5 6