Want to secure erase my Intel 330 180GB SSD

[Muse]

So, I've been having this problem for months, frequent 1-5 minute freezes where the Windows Event Viewer records an error involving iaStor. It's better since I've been running the Intel Toolbox Optimizer regularly, but it's not gone (it's down from ~10/day to maybe 1/day). People said I should image the SSD, secure erase it and then restore the image. If I still have frequent 1-5 minute freezes, reinstall Windows 7 from scratch. If still having the freezes, go for an RMA. I bought the SSD Nov. 23, 2012, so the 3 year warranty is about to expire, so I want to sort this out now. I only installed the SSD in April of 2014, however. It's in a Lenovo T60 running a T5500 CPU and 3GB of RAM.

The SSD has 3 partitions:

~100MB being the default Windows 7 system partition (I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit on this machine)
~60GB OS_Apps partition
~120GB Data partition

Problems have not been limited to freezes. One time the data partition failed the Intel Toolbox Extended test. Two times data on that partition became unreadable and I had to restore from backup. The most recent episode was ~2 weeks ago when my email client's inbox appeared empty from within the application but the inbox files were there and big. I had to restore my backup of the application to regain an inbox.

The Intel Toolbox has a secure erase button, but it will only work on an SSD without multiple partitions. So, I removed the SSD to a 2.5" enclosure and attached it to my desktop, running XP. I just installed the Intel Toolbox on that desktop machine but for some reason it doesn't see the attached SSD. The SSD partitions (the 2 that aren't hidden) are seen in Explorer.

Why doesn't the Intel Toolbox see the SSD partitions? It indicates that it does not see any Intel solid-state drives. I guess it has to do with the fact that it's installed via a USB enclosure.

I was going to use Disk Management on the desktop to delete the partitions so that I could run secure erase using the Intel Toolbox but now I am wondering if that's possible. Obviously if the Intel Toolbox doesn't see the SSD I can't secure erase using it.

I was going to do the free upgrade to Windows 10 in the hopes that the problem would go away (someone with seemingly my exact same hardware said his freezes went away when he upgraded to Windows 10), but it's been suggested to me that Windows 10 would only bog down the Lenovo T60 and I should stick with Windows 7.

Thanks for clarifications, help, assistance, suggestions, etc!

 

[Muse]

I guess a lot of TLDR.

Well, I thought about it and maybe have an answer to how I can secure erase the SSD. I have a laptop optical drive enclosure that will accept 2.5" drives. I've used HDs in it, I suppose an SSD would work. Perhaps Intel Toolbox will see the SSD if used in that scenario. I'll have a try today.

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-032319.htm

???

 

[Muse]

http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-032319.htm

???

At that page (right at the top) it basically says I should do a low level format of the SSD because I'm having freezes. I'm trying to figure out how to do that. Anyone know?

 

[Muse]

I used Parted Magic CD and the instructions from How To Securely Erase Your SSD Without Destroying It to do a secure erase of the SSD, after having deleted the 3 partitions. All was pretty much as described except that Parted Magic offered to do an Enhanced Secure Erase instead of Secure Erase, since the SSD supported that feature. I did some Googling and decided to just do a Secure Erase, I don't think it much matters. The operation was estimated to take ~4 minutes but took ~70 seconds. I tried repartitioning the SSD in one of my laptops using an optical drive HD enclosure but it wasn't seen, so I put it in a USB 2.5" enclosure and a different machine saw the disk and I just repartitioned it using Disk Management. I'm about to restore the image I made the other day. I think that will probably go well. Hopefully no more freezes. If there are, I will decide which of several images I have to try including a couple of very young images of Windows 7, or I may do a fresh install. If freezes persist, I'm going to try for an RMA.

 

[LTC8K6]

At that page (right at the top) it basically says I should do a low level format of the SSD because I'm having freezes. I'm trying to figure out how to do that. Anyone know?

The page also had 3 links to suggested programs to use for the low level format.

 

[Muse]

The page also had 3 links to suggested programs to use for the low level format.

Yeah, and I went to those pages but found it tough sledding. Dban starts right off the bat saying it doesn't work on SSD drives. That may not be true but I figure I should scratch it off the list for that alone. Around a year ago I took its word for it (having backed up my SSD first, to be sure ) and ran it with a HD attached. Guess what... it erased my SSD.

Those other links just aren't transparent at all what you have to do with them and what they do.

Parted Magic, however, with the instructions I got from another site was simple, but I'm not the least bit sure it did what is known as a low level format.

Well, I've got the system up and running again but I got another error implicating iaStor only a few minutes after booting, not a good sign.