How to Secure Erase (reset) an Intel Solid State Drive (SSD)
Posted By Chris Stinson in Hardware on June 30, 2009
By now many have heard about the performance degredation found in Intel SSDs due to the write/rewrite commands. Although they remain incredibly fast, there are some instances where you may wish to “reset” the drive or at least secure erase the drive for a second sale or install in a different computer or server.
An Intel quote: “An alternative method (faster) is to use a tool to perform a SECURE ERASE command on the drive. This command will release all of the user LBA locations internally in the drive and result in all of the NAND locations being reset to an erased state. This is equivalent to resetting the drive to the factory shipped condition, and will provide the optimum performance.”
The Center for Magnetic Recording Research no longer has HDDErase 3.3 on their website which is needed to secure erase the Intel X18-M, X25-M and X25-E. HDDErase 4.0 is not compatible with the Intel SSDs but should be used for all other hard drives. HDDErase 3.3 is available below:
Download HDDErase 3.3 (Intel SSD Compatible) here.
Included in the zip file are usage instructions. Be sure you can create a DOS 6.22 boot disk (in Windows XP explorer, right click on the “A drive” and select “format” and “create boot disk”). Then include the HDDErase.exe file on the disk.
You must also disable AHCI (SATA Mode) if enabled in your BIOS before you boot into DOS for the utility to run and work properly. Most BIOS will have an option to emulate IDE mode for SATA ports. Be sure to switch it back to AHCI once you are done.
Secure erasing the Intel SSD only takes about a minute.
Related posts:
- Intel releases SSD firmware and SSD Toolbox (Trim) for Windows 7
- Nimble Data with Solid State Drives (SSDs)
- Intel Board SE7221BA1-E Signal “Out of Range” with fresh Windows 2003 Install
- Ridata announces three new “low-cost” SSDs
- Dell DAS MD1000 Benchmarks
(average: 3.00 out of 5)
13 Comments
Contact
RSS Feed
Loading ...
[...] Read the original post:
Well, that’s interesting. I wonder what it’s doing on the back end? Maybe the DOS equivalent of dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1?
I’d like to know more. Thanks for posting this!
[...] one doesn’t support the Intel series. Here is a somewhat well detailed guide on what to do: How to Secure Erase (reset) an Intel Solid State Drive (SSD) – IIS Hacks | Server Resources __________________ Rig: Intel Xeon W3520 @ 4.1GHz (1.20V) | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P | OCZ [...]
[...] How to Secure Erase (reset) an Intel Solid State Drive (SSD) [...]
[...] [...]
[...] no point in going through that effort – using DBAN would actually work better for that. I found this page that linked to a tool said to do a secure erase on some SSDs. You can try it and see if it claims [...]
[...] but if you use an Intel X-25M, X-25E, or X-18M SSD, follow this link to download Secure Erase 3.3 http://www.iishacks.com/index.php/2009/06/30/how-to-secure-erase-reset-an-intel-solid-state-drive-ss... . Note that it is no longer being developed, and we were unable to use it on a system running an [...]
THis is not working for me, I get the message: “This drive does not support the security set features”
My netbook is an Acer Aspire One A110, 8GB Intel SSD, but there’s a problem, I don’t have advanced option in BIOS, so I can’t set AHCI Mode disabled! The BIOS Utility is InsydeH20 Setup Utility, wih no Advanced Options. Thanks!
[...] [...]
[...] A full walkthrough of the steps required to use HDDErase to securely erase the SSD is available at IISHacks. [...]
[...] A full walkthrough of the steps required to use HDDErase to securely erase the SSD is available at IISHacks. [...]
[...] A full walkthrough of the steps required to use HDDErase to securely erase the SSD is available at IISHacks. [...]
[...] a Secure Erase program like this one: http://www.iishacks.com/index.php/20…ate-drive-ssd/ or just google for "Secure Erase SSD" Hope that heped [...]