42
Do I really have to use secure erase
(sopuli.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
42 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
67095 readers
909 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/your-diskshould do it in your case. And in 99% of cases.this is just gonna cause useless wear on the ssd. only do this to hdds
I think you mean doing that for more than once has no extra effect on an SSD. Shouldn't we overwrite the unencrypted content for at least once?
nope, i mean that's just useless. (it does kinda do the job, but wears it down, and not as effective since SSDs aren't really predictable because of wear leveling stuff and lie to the OS) there's an ATA Secure Erase feature that can be used instead.
some relevant link https://grok.lsu.edu/article.aspx?articleid=16716
Wait, HDDs retain data after deletion? I thought only SSDs did that.
nope its just how the file system works, same on hdd. in fact recovery programs like testdisk/recuva usually work better on hdds because ssds have trim and garbage collection running periodically