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[-] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

where is the user error? is this user error with us in the room?

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Fully overwriting an SSD is so archaic.

Example from hdparm:

--trim-sector-range
For Solid State Drives (SSDs). EXCEPTIONALLY DANGEROUS. DO NOT USE THIS OPTION!! Tells the drive firmware to discard unneeded data sectors, destroying any data that may have been present within them. This makes those sectors available for immediate use by the firmware's garbage collection mechanism, to improve scheduling for wear-leveling of the flash media. This option expects one or more sector range pairs immediately after the option: an LBA starting address, a colon, and a sector count (max 65535), with no intervening spaces. EXCEPTIONALLY DANGER‐ OUS. DO NOT USE THIS OPTION!!

I think the all caps warnings say it all.
This is only for the trim sectors of the disk but I can't imagine it being much different overwriting a whole disk.
Not to mention, as OP said, an old and very used disk.
Quick formatting should be enough to prevent any normal user from extracting meaningful data from the flash storage as only the controller knows how to piece together the flash cells to a file.
If the controller forgets it, the files are toast anyway.
At best write some random data to a quarter of the disk or something lile that.

File recovery may only be possible if you give it to a drive recovery facility. But remember: Those ain't exactly cheap.
A client paid some 4 figure price because an HDD died. Just for a small amount of files.

this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
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