Most SSDs do have a "secure erase" command, but it's not guaranteed to actually do what it says on the tin. If you need to destroy sensitive data without destroying the disk along with it, writing multiple passes of random data to the entire drive increases the chance that you'll overwrite all the blocks, including the reserve ones used for wear leveling. But it's safer to just use full-disk encryption.
... show moreMost SSDs do have a "secure erase" command, but it's not guaranteed to actually do what it says on the tin. If you need to destroy sensitive data without destroying the disk along with it, writing multiple passes of random data to the entire drive increases the chance that you'll overwrite all the blocks, including the reserve ones used for wear leveling. But it's safer to just use full-disk encryption.
You CANNOT wipe most solid-state disks. That includes NVMe, SSD, USB flash drives, etc.The controller system on the disk does not write all zeroes just because you told it to, nor are blocks/sectors a physical map like they are on magnetic media. The wear and write management features baked into the storage system stop your wipe from succeeding
If you need to store information to flash storage that you need to protect from physical access later, encrypt the disk before you store the data. Or have plans to physically destroy the chips.
