Securely Erasing a Hard Drive from Within Linux

Prior to the discovery that SSDs could experience performance degradation over long periods of time, no one seemed to care about what a “secure erase’ was, much less had the need to run one. Hard drives, due to their design, don’t benefit much if at all from a secure erase, but in some cases SSDs can (especially if TRIM is not supported). The reason boils down to the fact that a secure erase reverts a storage device to its original factory condition like no other. It’s far more effective than a simple format, for reasons we’ve discussed before.

The de facto tool for performing a secure erase is with the DOS-based “HDDErase”, and with the help of the Ultimate Boot CD, I’ve been running that for as long as I’ve needed to. What I didn’t realize, is that a secure erase can also be performed from right inside of a live Linux environment, and while it does require more of a hands-on process, it might be required for some people (if HDDErase fails to secure erase due to the drive being ‘frozen’).

I stumbled on an official OCZ forum thread where one of its employees, Praz, offers a how-to on how to secure erase a drive from within Linux, and I admit… it’s a bit easier than I expected. Would it be easy for those who don’t know the first thing about Linux? Given that this guide covers every single step, I’d say yes.

The steps required include creating a Linux boot drive (Ubuntu is in the example), finding the proper drive letter for the SSD you want to securely erase, setting a password on it, and then issuing the secure erase command. For first time users, the process might take a couple of minutes, but once you have it down pat, it should take no longer than 30 seconds from the time you reach the live Linux desktop.

As an added bonus, the guide also explains how to securely erase the PCI Express-based RevoDrive. That process requires many more steps, but fortunately, securely erasing your drive isn’t something you should feel the need to do often.