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Data erasing software for home office. Toggle navigation. KillDisk for Home. All Home Solutions; KillDisk Freeware. [One Pass Zeros] erase & wipe methods without verification: Disk Wipe cleans live volumes by erasing the only unused (unallocated) clusters. Console Boot Disk boots both 64-bit modern UEFI Secure Boot systems & legacy 32. Permanently Wipes Unwanted Sensitive Data from Any Mac OS Hard Drive Stellar Data Erasure for File is a powerful Mac file eraser software to wipe selected files, folders or data from the entire hard drive on Mac OS X. The software contains powerful wiping algorithms in it and ensures permanent erasing of data, beyond the scope of data recovery. Nearly all Mac's sold after July 20, 2011 came with factory installs of OS X 10.7, the firmware will refuse to boot off the 10.6 disks even if they are the model specific ones, however if OS X 10.6 can be put on the drive via Firewire Target Disk mode or removing the drive and using another Mac, then the Mac will boot from it.
Thinking of giving an old hard drive to a friend, or taking it to be recycled? Be careful. When you delete a file on a mechanical drive, it’s not really gone—at least, not physically. Your file system marks the spot taken up by the file as “free space,” which is why you can sometimes recover deleted files.
RELATED:Why Deleted Files Can Be Recovered, and How You Can Prevent It
With enough usage, new files will overwrite your deleted files, making them harder to recover. Until that happens, though, your files aren’t physically gone. As a result, it’s very important that you securely wipe a mechanical drive before giving it away or recycling it.
If you’re a Mac user, Disk Utility can write random information over any entire drive. A single pass with random data will foil most recovery software, but if you’re as paranoid as the US government, you can run multiple passes as well.
NOTE: it’s not really necessary to overwrite files on an SSD with TRiM enabled; your Mac is already deleting files completely to ensure fast write speeds later. This is much more important for mechanical drives with spinning platters.
To wipe your mechanical drive, open Disk Utility, which you’ll find in Applications > Utilities.
Connect the drive you want to securely delete, then click it in the sidebar. Make sure you click the drive you want to securely delete: you do not want to erase some other hard drive by mistake! When you’re ready, click the “Erase” button.
The erase dialogue will come up. Click the “Security Options” button on the bottom. You’ll see a sliding scale with four options:
The first option, “Fastest,” will delete the partition but leave all files untouched. That’s not what we want, so let’s move the slider. The first notch to the right of “Fastest” writes over the entire drive with random data once; the third notch, three times.
RELATED:You Only Need to Wipe a Disk Once to Securely Erase It
As we’ve discussed before, you probably only need one pass, at least with modern hard drives. But three passes is what the US Department of Energy uses to securely delete their files. The Pentagon is even more paranoid: they use seven passes.
Seven passes is going to take a long time, and even three passes will take at least an hour, so only use these options if you’re really, really paranoid.
When you’ve picked how many wipes you’d like to run, click “OK,” then click “Erase” back at the initial prompt. Your Mac will begin wiping the drive.
The process will take a while, especially if you’ve opted for three or seven passes. Depending on the speed and size of the drive, a seven-pass run could take over a day, so don’t start this process if you need to take your laptop somewhere later in the day.
If you’re really pressed for time, there are easier ways to ensure your old data can’t be accessed—like with a hydraulic press.
If you don’t have a hydraulic press, a hammer should do the trick nicely. Both methods may adversely affect future performance of the drive, but are very effective at deterring file recovery efforts.
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Solid state drives are frequently referred to as the best upgrade you can make to your PC. Trading off disk space for speed is an increasingly popular option, but just like USB sticks and SD memory cards, SSDs can only be written to a limited number of times101 Guide To Solid State Drives101 Guide To Solid State DrivesSolid State Drives (SSDs) have really taken the mid-range to high end computing world by storm. But what are they?Read More.
This presents some interesting problems, particularly when it comes to erasing data (and doing so securely). Tools like Darik’s Boot and NukeHow to Wipe Your Hard Disk Drive Leaving the OS IntactHow to Wipe Your Hard Disk Drive Leaving the OS IntactSo you want to get rid of your computer. To keep your data secure you will want to securely wipe the drive. This ensures that no one can recover the deleted files. However, you might..Read More are not only ineffective, their write-intensive nature can vastly reduce performance and shorten SSD drive life.
Don’t get it wrong, securely erase your SSD the right way (if you even need to at all).
Only Do This If You Have To
Generally speaking, you should never have to perform any maintenance on your solid state drive. Such storage media has been designed with self-sufficiency in mind, using a series of algorithms and failsafes put in place to both maximise drive life and ensure data is properly discarded. The first protection comes in the form of wear levelling, designed to evenly distribute stored data between SSD blocks to ensure even wear.
As a reminder, traditional hard drives store files in physical locations on a magnetic platter, which is then indexed in the file systemWhat A File System Is & How You Can Find Out What Runs On Your DrivesWhat A File System Is & How You Can Find Out What Runs On Your DrivesWhat is a file system and why do they matter? Learn the differences between FAT32, NTFS, HPS+, EXT, and more.Read More and accessed using a mechanical arm – a very linear way of doing things. While SSDs also use file systems to communicate data storage locations to the host system, they independently re-shuffle data for wear levelling. Those changes are recorded on a separate map. In other words, SSDs do not use any physically indexable locations, and software cannot specifically target sectors on the disk. Basically, your computer has no way of telling “where” that information was just copied to.
To comply with wear levelling, the SSD must constantly move data around the drive to ensure all blocks are worn at an equal rate. Using a secure “file shredder” to overwrite a specific file or folder many numbers of times is not going to work, because the drive writes all new incoming data to various different blocks, depending on its needs. Only the drive knows where this data is written, so secure deletion tools actually harm SSDs by performing an unnecessary number of additional writes.
You’re probably wondering how data is ever deleted from an SSD, particularly if data is constantly moved. Thankfully the TRIM command is designed to solve such a conundrum by marking blocks of data the drive no longer considers in use to be wiped internally. Simply put, your discarded data will eventually vanish into thin nothing and be irretrievable, but only your drive really knows when that will be.
For a much more detailed look at TRIM and garbage collection, you should read our article on the usefulness of TRIM on modern SSDsWhy TRIM is Important to Solid State Hard Drives? [Technology Explained]Why TRIM is Important to Solid State Hard Drives? [Technology Explained]Read More.
It’s also worth remembering that these drives often use a small amount of unallocated space as a buffer for moving data around, which you’re very unlikely to be able to access. This would technically mean data remains on a drive even after it has been securely erased.
Securely Erasing an SSD
Fortunately, it is possible to erase most SSDs, though this is closer to a “reset” than a wipe. The “ATA Secure Erase” command instructs the drive to flush all stored electrons, forcing the drive to “forget” all stored data. This command essentially resets all available blocks to the “erase” state, which is what TRIM uses for garbage collection purposes.
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This command does not actually write anything to the drive. Instead it causes the SSD to apply a voltage spike to all available NAND in unison, resetting every available block of space in one operation. By doing this, you will use one whole program-erase cycle for your drive – a small dent in drive life, but still unnecessary unless you’re troubleshooting.
Secure Erase Using Manufacturer Software
Most manufacturers supply software for their solid state drives in order to update firmware and perform tasks like secure erase. While it’s impossible for us to check every manufacturer, we’ve made a list of available downloads for major brands below.
While this is the first place we’d recommend you go, this won’t always work as you’ll often need to run the software in Windows (and you probably installed Windows to your SSD). You might also find that your manufacturer hasn’t implemented the “ATA Secure Erase” command into their software, yet. In this case, try the next step.
Download: Intel Solid State Toolbox / OCZ Toolbox / Corsair SSD Toolbox / Samsung Magician / SanDisk SSD Toolkit
Secure Erase Using Parted Magic
We’ve covered Parted Magic in the pastParted Magic: A Complete Hard Drive Toolbox On One Live CDParted Magic: A Complete Hard Drive Toolbox On One Live CDTake control of your hard drives. Whether you want to edit your partitions, clone an entire drive, check SMART data or otherwise manage the way your computer's data is organized, Parted Magic is the tool..Read More – it’s a veritable box of tricks. Before it was swallowed up by Symantec, Partition Magic made all kinds of functions that previously required long command lines easy. Parted Magic does the same, except it’s a whole Linux distribution and it now costs $4.99.
The project was free in the past, but users selling pre-loaded USB sticks on eBay and dwindling donations prompted the project’s leader to place the files behind a paywall. Still, $5 to restore your SSD to “factory fresh” levels of performance isn’t a huge ask:
The erase process takes a matter of seconds, then you’re done.
A Word for Mac Users
According to forum chatter, Parted Magic works just fine on a Mac – provided you can get it to boot in the first place. While Macs can boot operating systems from USB drive, it’s notoriously difficult to get right. If your Mac SSD has a problem and it’s under warranty, it’s much easier to let Apple deal with it – even if it’s just a software problem.
Parallel Program For Mac
You can check out our own guide to booting a USB stick on a MacHow to Create and Boot From a Linux USB Drive on MacHow to Create and Boot From a Linux USB Drive on MacThere are a few ways to get a create a live Linux USB drive that will boot on your Mac: you can do it with freeware, or get your hands dirty with the command line.Read More, but as you can see from the comments your mileage may vary. If you’re only after a fresh start, you can reinstall OS XHow to Install macOS From USBHow to Install macOS From USBWant to install macOS from a USB drive? We'll walk you through this alternative method for installing macOS.Read More like you would on any Mac, just don’t choose to securely erase by “shredding” when formatting.
Free Drawing Program For Mac
Image credits: Laineema Via Flickr, HDD vs. SSD Test (Simon Wüllhorst), Intel Branding (Brandon Daniel)
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