SSD Secure erase - interrupted - now drive not found

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SSD Secure erase - interrupted - now drive not found

I wanted to erase my SSD so, with it plugged into a spare usb port, I began a 3 pass secure erase (which I keep reading the system won't let you do with an SSD, but it did. I also realize it's unnecessary so don't need to hear about that at this point). The first pass took about 8 hours so as soon as the second pass began I force quit the disk utility (and received no warnings about doing so). Now the drive no longer shows. I rebooted, tried a new usb port, but still no sign of the ssd drive. I've read about others having the same issue but not seen any solution yet. I don't think it's faulty in any way as this seems to be happening to others who quit the erase process in mid sequence. Where did it go? Thanks!~

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), 15" 2011

Posted on Jan 7, 2016 6:20 AM

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Answer 1

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Jan 7, 2016 8:08 PM in response to ukmarcus

Have you tried booting into the Recovery HD (Command+R) and using Disk Utility there?

Have you tried using Terminal and diskutil command line commands? Try diskutil list to see if it shows up. Then you can use diskutil commands to repartition/format it.

Otherwise, 3rd party utilities like Drive Genius 4 or Disk Warrior might work. I know the trial version of Drive Genius 4 won't repair issues. It will only show you issues. I have never used Disk Warrior, so I don't know about that one.

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Answer 2

Jan 7, 2016 7:52 AM in response to ukmarcus

Because of the way SSD drives work, it is not appropriate to do a secure erase on the whole drive, and certainly not of random data or multiple passes. Your drive likely choked on the deleted data it was forced to carry along and died. That is one reason why secure erase is no longer a standard option for routine erasure in the current version of Mac OS X.

You may have ruined your drive, or you may have simply overwhelmed it. If you can keep it powered on, but not accessed for a few hours, it may be able to do an internal garbage collect and return to visibility. If it does, do a simple erase, not a secure erase, and it may be usable again.

SSD drives randomly assign block numbers. When you do a simple erase, the data are completely randomized into small pieces. IF you could get the drive to send you some of that randomized data (which is unlikely by normal means) it would be hopelessly mixed up in a way that would be unsalvageable.

This is considered so badly mangled that "ordinary" data you stored on it is safe, except for Nuclear Secrets. For those, DOD practices require that the SSD chips be shredded.

There are no readily-available programs that can access deleted SSD data if TRIM is in use. If you delete your essay and are using an SSD, it is GONE.

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2016 8:04 AM in response to ukmarcus

ukmarcus wrote:

I wanted to erase my SSD...I began a 3 pass secure erase

Certainly shortens the life span of a SSD.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan(10.11.2), i7 480GB SSD 16GB RAM iPhone5 iOS9.2, Parallels10.0.2

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Answer 4

ukmarcus Author

Level 1

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Jan 7, 2016 9:14 AM in response to keg55

When I unplug the ssd from the usb and put it back in the macbook and boot, then it shows up in the disk utility. I tried to reinstall the os but it says it can't mount/unmount.

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Answer 5

steve359

Level 6

17,187 points

Jan 7, 2016 9:19 AM in response to ukmarcus

Do what Grant advised -- plug into power, but leave it unmounted. The management-firmware *MAY* be able to clear the backlog of disk writes/moves, maybe not.

Good luck.

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Answer 6

ukmarcus Author

Level 1

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Jan 8, 2016 5:18 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I'm using the new OS and it let me select the secure erase, no problem. And like I said, no warnings when I disconnected. Nothing at any point to suggest that I was doing anything untoward that could damage the drive.

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