#ATA SECURE ERASE SSD PASSWORD#
#ATA SECURE ERASE SSD WINDOWS#

This mechanism can leave some data in the sectors that have been reallocated and hides them from being overwritten by the user. Just select Secure Erase and follow the prompts. ItвЂ™s extremely easy to get started and the Secure Erase tab should be available on the left-hand side of the softwareвЂ™s main interface.

#ATA SECURE ERASE SSD WINDOWS#

enhanced secure erase - uses a more thorough approach of overwriting the whole physical disk (including reallocated sectors and parts of the disk not accessible to the user) using some manufacturer-specific data patterns (can be multiple writes)Дrives usually have some spare capacity not visible to the user, which is used when sectors fail and need to be internally reallocated. For Windows users with an Intel SSD, the Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox offers loads of useful features throughout the life of your device.secure erase - defined as writing zeroes over the whole visible disk (does not include reallocated sectors).For older disks without self-encryption, the difference between erase mechanisms are as follows:.

#ATA SECURE ERASE SSD PASSWORD#

So no, the length of the password does not matter at all, as it is just a part of the protocol you use to give advanced commands to the disk. If the drive supports 'ATA Secure Erase' (AFAIK all modern SATA SSDs do), and youre willing to boot a Linux live image, theres a way to do it from the command line. Computer BIOSes typically set their own password on the disk during boot in an attempt to protect your disks from unauthorized access (e.g. The script functions along similar lines to hderase.py. The user password is just a command access mechanism with which you can prevent someone from performing dangerous commands on the disk, such as running the internal erase functions. A bash script to securely erase ATA disks, runs the SECURITY ERASE UNIT command using hdparm. The user password has nothing to do with the data stored on the disk or how it is encrypted for self-encrypting drives.After that none of the data on the disk makes any sense anymore. Internally self-encrypted drives can be very quickly wiped by essentially just destroying the internal encryption key used, just as David explains.

David's answer is perfectly correct in all aspects but perhaps does not specifically answer all questions.

Ata secure erase ssd