Secure deleting data on SSD

[spiketoo]

First and foremost, appreciate being able to lurk, assimilate and (allegedly) learn on these boards (tho time is the final judge). Great group of knowledgeable folks here not a bit shy bout reaching out to help.

Putting together a new box and think I've got past info overload coupled with analysis paralysis and just have one question remaining.

Getting a Crucial Real 120GB SSD for boot\OS drive. Couple of 1TB HDs for data. Been reading about their finite life span, etc., etc., etc. I've read some manufacturers have a Secure Erase pgm, but I generally use East-Tec Eraser or ccleaner just as a tool to wipe my cache on a 7 pass basis numerous times a day (cant be too paranoid you know). So my question is this - will this cause any additional undue 'stress' on the SSD? Or should I just store the FF profile on one of the HDs? And speaking of such, any degradation in access speed having executing pgms on the SSD and data files accessed from the HD?

TIA!

 

[Emulex]

secure erase doesn't work as you might think since data is not stored in a specific location like a hard drive. best to use a drive that has built in encryption (ie new intel g3) - 7 pass would be insanely hard on the ssd. and not complete

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, things like overwrite tools and free space wipers are useless on SSDs, due to wear-leveling features. If you have sensitive data, you should probably not use an SSD. Or use one with BIOS/boot-level password support, with drive that does hardware encryption based on the password.

 

[Nothinman]

Yeah, things like overwrite tools and free space wipers are useless on SSDs, due to wear-leveling features. If you have sensitive data, you should probably not use an SSD. Or use one with BIOS/boot-level password support, with drive that does hardware encryption based on the password.

Or OS level encryption like the many block lock level encryption options in Linux or Bitlocker or NTFS file level encryption if you're using Windows.

 

[Modelworks]

No need to be doing all that.
To erase a file from a SSD,overwrite all the free space with data . One time is enough.
With SSD you have to erase all the free space to be sure that the deleted file is truly gone, otherwise it will still be there but the sectors will be marked as free until they are overwritten.

 

[spiketoo]

Thx to all for your responses. I do have a encryption suite I use and that's not really what I'm shooting for here. I just like (tho albeit perhaps false at times) the 'security' of wiping data on a daily basis primarily my browser cache and cookies for when I do any type of financial trans or when I dont want to wait for TOR throughput :sneaky:. Just got in the habit of 'cleaning' up files by wiping thoroughly. I realize this probably isnt the best method on an SSD so I'll probably just move my FF profile to a HD.

 

[VirtualLarry]

No need to be doing all that.
To erase a file from a SSD,overwrite all the free space with data . One time is enough.
With SSD you have to erase all the free space to be sure that the deleted file is truly gone, otherwise it will still be there but the sectors will be marked as free until they are overwritten.

That still won't do it. SSDs "overprovision" space, so there's a chunk of free space that isn't actually user-accessable. So you cannot really write to all of the free space, the drive won't let you.

This is why, for truely sensitive data, SSDs are a no-go, without hardware-level password-based encryption.

 

[smakme7757]

Why not put the sensitive file in a Truecrypt container and then delete the container. That way the only recoverable file is the Truecrypt container.

 

[sxr7171]

Thx to all for your responses. I do have a encryption suite I use and that's not really what I'm shooting for here. I just like (tho albeit perhaps false at times) the 'security' of wiping data on a daily basis primarily my browser cache and cookies for when I do any type of financial trans or when I dont want to wait for TOR throughput :sneaky:. Just got in the habit of 'cleaning' up files by wiping thoroughly. I realize this probably isnt the best method on an SSD so I'll probably just move my FF profile to a HD.

Move your browser cache to a RAMDisk.