Alternatives to DBAN for SSD Secure Erase?

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Patrick

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Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Hey all,

I am looking for a tool to help make wiping machines faster. SAS or SATA SSDs would be the primary targets and DBAN seems like it does not work for this.

Ideally it would be a bootable ISO format so it can be mounted via IPMI.

Does anyone else have a good recommendation?
 

TuxDude

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2011
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I switched from dban to nwipe a while back - basically the same thing (technically a fork) but it runs under linux instead of booting directly into it which gives it hardware support for everything that linux supports.

But for SSDs the thing to do would be just issue the secure-erase command to them and let them do it internally. Any kind of external secure erase (eg. dban, nwipe, etc.) can't guarantee that ever block was overwritten due to the drives internal block remapping/wear-leveling.

nwipe is included in the parted-magic bootable iso's (including the old free release thats still hosted in various places), as well as hdparm which can be used to issue the ATA secure-erase command.
 
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Patrick

Administrator
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Dec 21, 2010
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@TuxDude thanks. I bought parted magic in September so I may try that next.

I just need something that can also deal with a "frozen" SSD. In terms of scale, not huge for numbers of drives, but if I am going to do something 20 times a week potentially, it would be easier to just mount an ISO via IPMI and let the thing roll.

@cheezehead unfortunately, given the variety of vendor gear we get it needs to be a universal solution.
 

azev

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Jan 18, 2013
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I've never had any issues just doing a secure erase with hdparm, plus you can set OP with it at the same time.

ATA Secure Erase - ata Wiki
I have had bad experience with HDPARM OP mechanism.
For some reason the change is permanent on some SSD. I tried to OP vertex 4 ssd that I had from 240gb to 100gb and accidently left out a zero in the block size and now I got a 10Gb SSD that I cant revert back to original size.
 

wildchild

Active Member
Feb 4, 2014
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I have had bad experience with HDPARM OP mechanism.
For some reason the change is permanent on some SSD. I tried to OP vertex 4 ssd that I had from 240gb to 100gb and accidently left out a zero in the block size and now I got a 10Gb SSD that I cant revert back to original size.
Never had a problem with hdparm.
Used it more times then i can count on samsung/pro , intel,adata and some others secure erase and OP.
it is pretty important you follow the right path and steps otherwise you might end up with a bricked device.
Method i use and prefer is thomass krenn method