Thinking of wiping your ssd drive then don't?

Thinking of wiping your ssd drive then don't?



Modern ssd drives suffer from problems relating to data wiping.

Wiping a ssd drive using conventional wiping programs can damage them.

A ssd drive is basically a set of computer chips with no moving parts.

The ssd drive will overwrite old data when required itself.

You can use a process called trim that will basically help the drive.

Unlike a conventional hdd a ssd drive writes the data randomly across their NAND cells

More info can be found here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/02/04/windows-7-ssd-performance-and-trim/1

 

One thing to add is that quite often the drive manufacturers will have a safe wiping mechanism, to securely erase data on the drive. My Intel SSD had some very good companion software on from the Intel driver site and my current Samsung drive has a "secure erase" tool in part of the "Samsung Magician" software available for download. It essentially wipes it by changing the encryption keys, rather than overwriting the data and reducing the life span .

 

Good info, I had no idea that using third party softwares to clean a SSD could damage them I had done it a couple of times in the past, this explains a lot!

 

I agree with Ian the specialist ssd wipe programs are the "only" ones to use,
most ssd suppliers will include it for downloading on their sites.


It's the standard wiping programs that do the damage, the structure of the
ssd drives are to place your data “randomly” throughout the drive,and not like
a standard drive in “blocks” of data.

It's still advisable not to undertake a wipe on the ssd drive,and better to do a trim process
unless you are thinking of selling or wanting to pass it on to someone else.

 

To be honest, this is the first time I've heard of that SSD. I had to search now to understand that it means Solid State Drive which is like an oversized USB stick. And yes, there are no moving parts so it has no overheating concern. We are about to buy an external hard disk for archiving so maybe I can consider an SSD instead of an HDD. But I have to read more to fully understand SSD.

 

It all depends on how much capacity you will be needing.

The ssd drives are a little faster but can be expensive if you are looking to buy
a larger one.


The prices are coming down all the time.

I would exchange the internal drive for a ssd but would look into buying a hybrid SSHD
external drive.

 

Thanks very much for the information. Aside from the cost of the SSD, what worries me is the integrity in storing data. I have sad experiences with the SD card of the smart phones - they just lose data without warning. And if that would be the case of the SSD then we are going to have a problem since it is an archive storage which means it is large and has a huge amount in terms of quantity. And now you are mentioning a hybrid SSHD. Let me search for that, an added knowledge.

 

Don't worry about the integrity of SSD drives there very reliable.

 

It is like a usb stick it isn't just one it's like having multiple usb sticks connected between each other to make one big drive.



The top image is of a regular hard drive and the bottom one is of a SSD drive.

 

Thanks for the illustration, @SirJoe, you made it so clear for me. I am really interested in this SSD although admittedly the costs is not competitive yet.

Just a side story. In 2012, I bought a 500 GB SATA hard drive to be used as external for archiving purposes. That drive would be heating after a minute or 2 and after continuous use for 30 minutes, the drive is so hot that you cannot hold it with bare hands. When I reported it to the vendor, who fortunately is an acquaintance, she said that it is just all right. And to appease me, she gave me a new drive and let me keep the overheating one. I still have that hard disk which is still serviceable except for the heat. With SSD, overheating is not an issue, I guess.

 

Think nothing of it I'm glad I could help.
That drive could still be used with a certain amount of caution. There are boxes with a usb connection that allow you to use it as a external drive. I wouldn't put very important information on it only things that you might want to make a backup of a backup.