ATA Secure Erase is part of the ATA ANSI specification and when implemented correctly, wipes the entire contents of a drive at the hardware level instead of through software tools. Software tools over-write data on hard drives and SSDs, often through multiple passes; the problem with SSDs is that such software over-writing tools cannot access … Read more
Don’t attempt to “wipe” an SSD with tools designed for spinning magnetic hard drives. You won’t actually destroy all the data, and you’ll just reduce the lifetime of the SSD. Instead, use an erase tool specifically designed for SSDs, which can use the drive’s internal flash erase (discard) to discard all of the blocks, including … Read more
I have successfully gotten all the way through rm -rf –no-preserve-root / without the system crashing first, and without anything being left on the drive.
Create an image in a ramdisk containing whatever tools you require to nuke the system, then pivot_root into it, run the tool, away you go. Pivoting out of a full system isn’t trivial, but it can be done if you know what you’re doing.
Drilling a hole in the drive enclosure which passes through all the platters will make it impossible to run the drive. Most modern HDDs don’t have air inside the enclosure, and you’ve let what was in there escape. You’ve filled the cavity with tiny pieces of drill swarf, which will be on everything including the … Read more