All of the options i find are pretty complex and involved.
Gparted, et al, seem to require quite a bit of deep diving into the terminal of Ubuntu.

Is there an option, a bootable ISO, that I can use in windows or ubuntu that simply asks "do you wish to completely erase this SSD harddrive?". Click yes or no. That's it.

Obviously you're not OK'ing the destruction of the disk. You simply want to sell or donate it with a laptop or start fresh with a new OS. So why not have such a simple program available? Or have I just been unable to find it. Or is it too expensive for my one time use? I checked with PNY and they neither offer or endorse anything to secure erase.

 

Linux:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=8M

sdx = drive device (i.e. sda, sdb, etc,)

or use /dev/random instead of /dev/zero.

 

live cd/usb, then just use whatever formatting program they have

i think i have used live cd of gparted
https://gparted.org/livecd.php

 

i think dd has live cd/usb too

 

Linux:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=8M

sdx = drive device (i.e. sda, sdb, etc,)

or use /dev/random instead of /dev/zero.

I'm semi computer literate. I can use the terminal option dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=8M only from one computer connected to the
other that contains the harddrive. Correct? Do I connect with an ethernet crossover cable? Will I neet to set up some form of networking?

How do I determine the three letter code that applies to my PNY drive? sda, sdb, etc?

What difference between dev/random or dev/zero?

In order to wipe the drive from the computer that i'm actually sitting at I must use a live CD with a bootable iso of dd if=/dev/zero?

Thanks for clearing up any of this.

 

Hello,

dd will be present at almosts every live distribution.
A famous live distribution is knoppix:
http://knopper.net/knoppix/
Also the mentioned gparted is present on the knoppix disk.
There is also a special forum for knoppix:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/

As for the question about the difference between dev/zero and dev/random:
dev/zero will fill the disk with all zero's
dev/random will fill the disk with random numbers.

Bertus

 

Currently have the most basic flavor of Ubuntu installed.
Am I able to do all of this on the same computer where the harddrive is installed by booting from the "try Ubuntu" option on the bootable USB stick it came from? I understand that this allows running Linux/Ubuntu disassociated from the harddrive.

How do I determine the three letter code that applies to my PNY drive? sda, sdb, etc?

 

fdisk -l

will enumerate the drives for you.

/dev/sda will be the first SATA drive, /dev/sdb the second, and so on.

USB connected drives will follow those.

The commands dd and fdisk require root permission to run. Do this by prefixing with sudo, for example:

sudo fdisk -l

 

Also, a SATA to USB adapter is invaluable when working with drives that are not hard-wired to your system. I use something similar to this.

 

To be honest, SSD's are not easy to erase with simple overwrite or partition sector nulling, data could easily be recovered. Use "Blancco Drive Eraser" for SSD's, its proven non recovery solution.

 

To be honest, SSD's are not easy to erase with simple overwrite or partition sector nulling, data could easily be recovered. Use "Blancco Drive Eraser" for SSD's, its proven non recovery solution.

If I write 512 GB of zeros or random values to a 512 GB SSD, please explain how I would go about recovering the original data from the drive.

 

I have an earlier version of this disk software that has many utilities, booting from dos – which includes a number of eraser programs.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultimate...=item2f00fdde70:g:4LIAAOSwaB5Xk93O:rk:18:pf:0

For the price, it is worth having the disk as a repair standby for when your PC won’t boot at all.

The disk utility programs are available free (by searching the web), but you can’t do that without a working PC – well worth the money in my opinion.

 

Hello,

@Hymie , Hirens BootCD is a comparable cd:
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
Wich tools are included can be found on the download page:
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Bertus

 

I did say that the disk utilities are available free.

 

Thank you all. I really appreciate the input and your patience with my questions.
Good info to know.