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I am going to sell my notebook and want to erase my 256GB SDD before so that data cannot be restored under any circumstances.

Using tools like shred and dd I can do that with certain partitions which I am not currently running my OS from.

But since I only have one partition on my notebook, I am wondering how/which tool I can use to safely erase/overwrite the content?

CD86
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2 Answers2

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You cannot sit on the chair while sawing the legs off. Similarly, a partition you want to wipe should not be in use.

Start a live session using a live USB or DVD, or alternatively, boot into a recovery prompt, and shred the partition from there.

Consider whether shredding is worthy the time and trouble. Reformatting the partition or erasing partitions will be quite faster. Recovering binary data after that already will be very difficult. Someone will really need to have high interest in your data to spend the effort and time recovering these.

FedKad
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vanadium
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If you are using an NVMe storage device, then you can securely erase all data with the nvme-cli utility:

  1. Boot the computer with an Ubuntu installation USB and choose “Try Ubuntu”
  2. Open Terminal
  3. Erase the encryption key for the flash modules: 
    sudo nvme format -s2 /dev/nvme0n1
    Note: Be sure to replace nvme0n1 with the actual device you wish to clear.
  4. TRIM and zero the flash modules: 
    sudo blkdiscard /dev/nvme0n1

After this is done, it is pretty much impossible to get any data back.

matigo
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