Wiping an SSD?
Discussion
Any easy way of wiping an SSD?
Sister in law has an old work laptop that she hasn't been able to use for ages as she spilt something on it, and it never worked again. They gave her a replacement but she knew they would eventually charge her for returning a damaged one, so she delayed handing it back.
She's now left her job and has declared the old laptop broken, and has paid a charge for this (deducted from her final months pay). They will arrange to collect it from her. Before returning it she wants to wipe the SSD of any of her own info/files that might be on it, such as driving licence details etc, but she can't log into the lap top to do so.
She was going to just remove the SSD before returning the laptop, but is there any way of wiping it instead? Didn't magnets used to work on old hard drives?
Sister in law has an old work laptop that she hasn't been able to use for ages as she spilt something on it, and it never worked again. They gave her a replacement but she knew they would eventually charge her for returning a damaged one, so she delayed handing it back.
She's now left her job and has declared the old laptop broken, and has paid a charge for this (deducted from her final months pay). They will arrange to collect it from her. Before returning it she wants to wipe the SSD of any of her own info/files that might be on it, such as driving licence details etc, but she can't log into the lap top to do so.
She was going to just remove the SSD before returning the laptop, but is there any way of wiping it instead? Didn't magnets used to work on old hard drives?
DBAN is what you need.
Though, speaking from the inside of a corporate IT department, one of two things will happen when it's returned. Either it'll get repaired, then wiped and handed out to someone else, or it'll be written off straight away and either crushed or wiped on the way out of the door.
That is of course assuming she works for a large-ish firm not some tinpot shambles where the boss's lad does the IT.
Though, speaking from the inside of a corporate IT department, one of two things will happen when it's returned. Either it'll get repaired, then wiped and handed out to someone else, or it'll be written off straight away and either crushed or wiped on the way out of the door.
That is of course assuming she works for a large-ish firm not some tinpot shambles where the boss's lad does the IT.
Red9zero said:
I'd just take it out, although from the sound if it, they'd charge her for that too. We must be spoiled at our firm, as I've never heard of anyone being charged for a damaged laptop, no matter how caused.
In 20 years in IT, i've only ever seen people 'in trouble' for damaging kit if they deliberately piss IT around in the process. If you just 'fess up and say "yeah, sorry, i spilled tango on it" then it just gets fixed and there's no problem. It's when you start lying about what's happened or being generally a pain that it goes outside the nerd room. We've had laptops handed in that have clearly been dropped down a flight of stairs, or ones that have clearly drowned in coffee, with people insisting they have "no idea how it happened". It's just insulting to the person on the receiving end, they see busted laptops every day of the week and know exactly what it takes to damage them. They don't care what happened, they just want to fix it and move on to the next thing.I know if someone had a replacement laptop and then refused to return the old one then an HR fuss would have been made at pretty much everywhere I've worked.
LeadFarmer said:
Any easy way of wiping an SSD?
Sister in law has an old work laptop that she hasn't been able to use for ages as she spilt something on it, and it never worked again. They gave her a replacement but she knew they would eventually charge her for returning a damaged one, so she delayed handing it back.
She's now left her job and has declared the old laptop broken, and has paid a charge for this (deducted from her final months pay). They will arrange to collect it from her. Before returning it she wants to wipe the SSD of any of her own info/files that might be on it, such as driving licence details etc, but she can't log into the lap top to do so.
She was going to just remove the SSD before returning the laptop, but is there any way of wiping it instead? Didn't magnets used to work on old hard drives?
Take it yo a specialist. It needs to be mounted onto a system that can access it and run a wipe program on it. Sister in law has an old work laptop that she hasn't been able to use for ages as she spilt something on it, and it never worked again. They gave her a replacement but she knew they would eventually charge her for returning a damaged one, so she delayed handing it back.
She's now left her job and has declared the old laptop broken, and has paid a charge for this (deducted from her final months pay). They will arrange to collect it from her. Before returning it she wants to wipe the SSD of any of her own info/files that might be on it, such as driving licence details etc, but she can't log into the lap top to do so.
She was going to just remove the SSD before returning the laptop, but is there any way of wiping it instead? Didn't magnets used to work on old hard drives?
But I suspect you are wasting money doing this. Unless there is valuable data on there or data that MUST NOT fall into someone else’s hands then it will simply be wiped by the company. They already have many of the personal details on their HR database anyway.
Thanks for the replies so far.
anonymoususer said:
Using the shift and f10 keys at install to get into cmd mode and then typing
diskpart
type list disk
select the hard drive number you wish to wipe- probably disk 0
then says disk 0 is selected disk
type clean all it will remove partitions and clean the disk
you wont see any progress status but after a few hours you will get a message something like diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk
Does that require the adm password?diskpart
type list disk
select the hard drive number you wish to wipe- probably disk 0
then says disk 0 is selected disk
type clean all it will remove partitions and clean the disk
you wont see any progress status but after a few hours you will get a message something like diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk
LeadFarmer said:
Thanks for the replies so far.
It requires the computer to be working... anonymoususer said:
Using the shift and f10 keys at install to get into cmd mode and then typing
diskpart
type list disk
select the hard drive number you wish to wipe- probably disk 0
then says disk 0 is selected disk
type clean all it will remove partitions and clean the disk
you wont see any progress status but after a few hours you will get a message something like diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk
Does that require the adm password?diskpart
type list disk
select the hard drive number you wish to wipe- probably disk 0
then says disk 0 is selected disk
type clean all it will remove partitions and clean the disk
you wont see any progress status but after a few hours you will get a message something like diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk
The only way is to remove the drive and either install it in another machine or in an external housing attached to a working computer. Then you can wipe it.
You already have all the info you need around wiping the disk. But I still can't get my head around the situation; I also have never heard of anybody being charged for damaging an item of work equipment.
But even then. If they've charged her for it, then surely it is now hers so why are they collecting it? They can't have it both ways.
But even then. If they've charged her for it, then surely it is now hers so why are they collecting it? They can't have it both ways.
sunbeam alpine said:
LeadFarmer said:
Thanks for the replies so far.
It requires the computer to be working... anonymoususer said:
Using the shift and f10 keys at install to get into cmd mode and then typing
diskpart
type list disk
select the hard drive number you wish to wipe- probably disk 0
then says disk 0 is selected disk
type clean all it will remove partitions and clean the disk
you wont see any progress status but after a few hours you will get a message something like diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk
Does that require the adm password?diskpart
type list disk
select the hard drive number you wish to wipe- probably disk 0
then says disk 0 is selected disk
type clean all it will remove partitions and clean the disk
you wont see any progress status but after a few hours you will get a message something like diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk
The only way is to remove the drive and either install it in another machine or in an external housing attached to a working computer. Then you can wipe it.
deckster said:
You already have all the info you need around wiping the disk. But I still can't get my head around the situation; I also have never heard of anybody being charged for damaging an item of work equipment.
But even then. If they've charged her for it, then surely it is now hers so why are they collecting it? They can't have it both ways.
I have never heard of it either and that's including instances of laptops being left on pay and display machines, left in rucksacks while going to the toilet on the train, left on the car roof, shutting the laptop with a pen on the keyboard thereby cracking the screen, as well as the standard coffee spill. Don't even get me started on the engineers determined to prove Toughbooks aren't so tough But even then. If they've charged her for it, then surely it is now hers so why are they collecting it? They can't have it both ways.
We have a 3 strike policy on hire cars, ie. 3 insurance claims and you pay the excess next time, although I've never heard that actually being enforced.
if it's a reasonably big company and/or it's using a pro IT services company, the chances are:
1. The device will be fixed, wiped and prepared for reuse
2. The drive was encrypted
3. Nobody will give a craperoonie about the old content
Depending on what type of SSD is in the device, it might also be a pig to remove. Is that all she's trying to hide from them? If yes then the value versus the effort seem a little disproportionate....
1. The device will be fixed, wiped and prepared for reuse
2. The drive was encrypted
3. Nobody will give a craperoonie about the old content
Depending on what type of SSD is in the device, it might also be a pig to remove. Is that all she's trying to hide from them? If yes then the value versus the effort seem a little disproportionate....
I am not sure if this still true but a guy I met was an ex data recovery guy for the Police and the way he described it, there is virtually no way to wipe a disc completely. he said you could format the drive 20 times/wipe it etc and they could still recover data.
I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
Frimley111R said:
I am not sure if this still true but a guy I met was an ex data recovery guy for the Police and the way he described it, there is virtually no way to wipe a disc completely. he said you could format the drive 20 times/wipe it etc and they could still recover data.
I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
When I'm disposing of hard drives I drill holes through the casing and leave them in a bucket of water in the garden for a year or so.I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
Frimley111R said:
I am not sure if this still true but a guy I met was an ex data recovery guy for the Police and the way he described it, there is virtually no way to wipe a disc completely. he said you could format the drive 20 times/wipe it etc and they could still recover data.
I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
He was wrong. I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
Most simple “wipes” can have a level of data recovered from them (basic format or delete)
But a wipe that is then fully overwritten can not, as the data no longer exists.
vaud said:
Frimley111R said:
I am not sure if this still true but a guy I met was an ex data recovery guy for the Police and the way he described it, there is virtually no way to wipe a disc completely. he said you could format the drive 20 times/wipe it etc and they could still recover data.
I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
He was wrong. I've just replaced my old laptop and am not sure what to do with it because of this (yes, porn files, etc etc. before anyone says it)
Most simple “wipes” can have a level of data recovered from them (basic format or delete)
But a wipe that is then fully overwritten can not, as the data no longer exists.
dapprman said:
Sorry but you are wrong. You can go back through the layers. Physical destruction is the only way. Even the 'high security' wiping methods are no guaranty of protection - can't remember the IBM method used with AIX (aside from it being based on random writes over fresh wipes/formats) but I do remember it used to take roughly 30 minutes per 100 GB of capacity. When I worked for a bank I had to do these before they went to the crusher.
Layers?sunbeam alpine said:
When I'm disposing of hard drives I drill holes through the casing and leave them in a bucket of water in the garden for a year or so.
I do the dsame except I p[ee in the bucket.My goldenshowers have all the acids and stuff to completely dissolve everything.Not even Abby Sciuto at NCIS could recover any data from them.
dapprman said:
Sorry but you are wrong. You can go back through the layers. A complete wipte actually is used a writing of 0s over the existing media and a blanking of the inode table (or equivalent). Physical destruction is the only way. Even the 'high security' wiping methods are no guaranty of protection - can't remember the IBM method used with AIX (aside from it being based on random writes over fresh wipes/formats) but I do remember it used to take roughly 30 minutes per 100 GB of capacity. When I worked for a bank I had to do these before they went to the crusher.
Agree that physical destruction is the only way to be sure.Having said that the forensic recovery techniques I am aware of rely on trace magnetism still being detectable in the physical media even after the contents have been theoretically wiped. I'm not sure how this would work with non-magnetic drives such as SSDs.
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