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    Quick Question about Destroying Data on the SSD in my M15x

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by jarvmeister, Mar 22, 2012.

  1. jarvmeister

    jarvmeister Notebook Consultant

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    I am planning to sell my M15x, it has an after-market SSD (see sig for model) and I intend to use an eraser program (Eraser) to wipe the disk of all data with a 2 pass process.

    I remember reading that the older (magnetic) HDDs would still retain some data unless numerous passes were made since the magnetic data could not totally be destroyed using just one or two passes.

    Given the data on an SSD is simply electrons rather than a magnetic signal, will a one or two pass be enough to completely eliminate all of my personal data and prevent any recovery from being able to take place?

    The fact of the matter is I'm not actually that concerned, I'm sure no one I sell the laptop to will be in the slightest bit interested in trying to recover data I have removed, but as I thought about it I wondered actually what the reality was these days with the SSDs, I thought it was an interesting question.

    I appreciate any feedback on this, including any answers to relevant questions I may have missed out.

    Cheers.
     
  2. Mobius 1

    Mobius 1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    You'll only wear out the NANDs of the SSD, just do a single pass delete and you're done.

    Almost nobody would have any problems or try to hack your data if you sell the SSD/laptop with the SSD
     
  3. jarvmeister

    jarvmeister Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks, it was more out of curiosity than anything else, and I didn't know if there was the same stubbornness as the old HDDs.

    So a single pass will literally obliterate it forever? It's more of interest to me since I do often dispose of PCs for my clients, and although no one yet has passed me a machine with an SSD I wondered how far I would need to go - some of my clients data is extremely sensitive, it would be nice to think that when SSDs do finally start being disposed of that scrubbing the data will be a far swifter process. Short of using a hammer.