Executing an ATA Secure Erase command to SSDs on OS X

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Is there a way to securely erase an SSD (I'm working with Crucial M500) from OS X? I'm not interested in zeroing the drive. What I need is the ATA Secure Erase which basically erases all data on the drive in a matter of seconds. I have looked and found that it's possible in Windows, but can't seem to find away in OS X.

(This post says it's not possible, but it was from 2011, so hopefully things might have changed since then How to use ATA security on a hard disk in practice? )

OSM10

Posted 2014-05-22T01:15:00.333

Reputation: 73

Answers

1

Yes/No, It's a pain in a** depending on what Mac you have. You will need to boot to linux distro off USB or external drive. Other key factor will be getting your computer to sleep so SSD no longer frozen. Then open terminal and run few commands.

Check out the link for commands and more info.

W.S.

Posted 2014-05-22T01:15:00.333

Reputation: 11

3When an answer depends on a link, it is best to repeat the relevant portions of the referenced page here in case the link goes down. – Jason Aller – 2014-05-26T18:14:46.737

Asked: 2014-05-22T01:15:00.333

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Active: 2019-01-25T12:01:10.507