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Alternative to Secure Erase

RGadd
New Contributor

I am moving my Intel 240GB series 530 SSD from one computer to another. I need to partition it differently. I tried to secure erase using the toolbox but it is security frozen and many attempts to power cycle have not unfrozen it - I read that others have had the same experience. Therefore I'm looking for a possible workaround.

The only thing I can think of is making one huge NTFS partition, filling it with data (I have an exactly 4GB file I can copy many times) then deleting all files and then doing a trim from the toolbox. Is this a good idea or is there another method?

7 REPLIES 7

Jose_H_Intel1
Valued Contributor II

Did you take the bootable Linux* option into consideration? I presented it above but here it is again:

The steps for the secure erase: http://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/SSD_Secure_Erase http://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/SSD_Secure_Erase

The tool you can use to create a bootable USB drive: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

Yes I saw that suggestion. I also run Linux systems and would have no problem using a live CD or USB to execute hdparm. But I have read the article carefully and I can't see where it says how to overcome the freeze. It just says in Step 1 that you should check it's in the not frozen state, but offers no help in un-freezing unless I've misunderstood it. The whole issue is that the SSD is frozen so this procedure doesn't get past Step 1. Perhaps I've missed something?

I've googled for ideas and there's another article here suggesting using hdparm

https://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/SSD_Tuning_for_Linux https://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/SSD_Tuning_for_Linux

which says "The most common way to unfreeze is to pull the data and power plugs out of the SSD and reinsert them. If this does not solve the issue you will need to research how to unfreeze your model of SSD." Precisely my problem.

Jose_H_Intel1
Valued Contributor II

Please put the system to sleep or suspend to unfreeze the drive.