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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.

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Shredding my SSDs (NVMe) under linux? (feddit.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey guys,

I want to shred/sanitize my SSDs. If it was a normal harddrive I would stick to ShredOS / nwipe, but since SSD's seem to be a little more complicated, I need your advice.

When reading through some posts in the internet, many people recommend using the software from the manufacturer for sanitizing. Currently I am using the SSD SN850X from Western digital, but I also have a SSD 990 PRO from Samsung. Both manufacturers don't seem to have a specialized linux-compatible software to perform this kind of action.

How would be your approach to shred your SSD (without physically destroying it)?

~sp3ctre

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

/dev/random, seriously? This will take ages and have no advantages over /dev/zero. Even when you really need to fill your drive with random data, use /dev/urandom, there's a chance that this will finish in couple days at least. And no, there's no guarantee that it will wipe all blocks because there are reserved blocks that only device firmware can access and rotate. Some data on rotated blocks still can be accessible for forensic analysis if you care about this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I think most modern distros use urandom for random too. These days, the PRNG is strong enough it doesn't need to stop and wait for more entropy.