Re: Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives

[Kevin Wilcox <wilcoxkm () APPSTATE EDU>]

On Thu, 26 Sep 2019 at 11:58, White, Ryan <Whitery () bhc edu> wrote:


> BHC is looking for a program to erase hard drives and flash drives.  What
> programs do you recommend to completely wipe USB and Hard Drives?  We are
> currently using an open source program when the need arises but that
> doesn’t erase flash drive and Solid State Drives.  Any input would be
> appreciated!

My short answer is, "it depends".

My longer answer is, "generally speaking, I'm happy with encrypting a drive
with BitLocker and then formatting it or using Secure Erase in the ATA
standard".

My long answer is "cue folks talking about wear levelling and how you can't
trust the drive to *actually* remove that data and what about the areas of
the drive where data may be stored that you can't overwrite and a bonded
destruction company is the only acceptable method and ..."

That's a big ol' can of worms, I hope you're ready to do some fishin'.

kmw

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