SSD / Wipe / Trim Question

[tonyt]

Hi

I am on Sierra. I have been given a La Die USB Slim Drive, USB3, SSD. It has data on it. My iMac has an internal SSD with Trim enabled. My question is this - how do I get rid of the data on the drive COMPLETELY and then what can I do to prevent the drive eventually slowing down due to undeleted data blocks and slower read / write times?

How do I clear the drive Completely?
Can I use trim on USB3 and if so how?
If not, is there anything else I can do? Trim Enabler I have heard of?
Or something else?
Or don't worry!

I am not a computer whiz kid and have done some research and every where I look I seem to come up with different answers. I have tried contacting La Ice but they are not very helpful!

Many thanks..........

 

[IWT]

Hi and a warm welcome to Mac-forums.

I'm guessing you probably meant LaCie USB Slim Drive.

You treat it like any other External Hard Drive (EHD).

To erase the data:

Mount the SSD; Open Disk Utility (DU) (found in Applications > Utilities > DU).

On the left will be all the drives attached/connected with your Mac.

Click-to-highlight the External SSD. From the small menu bar to the right Click on Erase.

This opens a small window with the option to name/rename your SSD and below it, Format - choose ".OS X Extended (Journaled)".

[You will also see a box with Security Options. Click on this to determine how many erases you want to perform according to your paranoia. This is not really necessary especially for SSDs]

Now Click Erase.

Job done.

PS Trim and all its options only applies to certain Internal SSDs. Ignore it as far as your External SSD is concerned.

Ian

 

[Rod]

I assume you mean a La Cie and if it is visible when connected to your Mac computer (you dont say which you have) you can erase it completely with Disk Utility in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
Depending on if it is already Mac formatted or PC formatted will determine how you go about this. So what is it?

 

[tonyt]

Many thanks both. I was under the impression that formatting an ssd did not properly, in some way, remove the written data. Am I wrong in thinking this? I was also under the impression that you could use Trim on external drive, again, wrongly?
I am just wallowing around trying to sort things out in my own head, so please forgive misguided ignorance!
Cheers.....

 

[Rod]

Formatting does erase the disk but you can choose security levels in the erase tab. The reason I asked if it was PC or Mac Formatted is because if PC you should re partition it. This will certainly erase it but you can still choose to zero it if you like although it will take a LONG TIME.
So which is it? PC or macOS?
Yes, you can use TRIM on an External SSD using Trim Enabler. See this; http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/46659/is-it-possible-to-enable-trim-for-an-external-ssd
It's a bit dated but still essentially correct I believe, someone else may be more knowledgeable on this than I as I have never needed it or used it.
I think the big question here may be, is the La Cie you have supported? If not its a moot question. See; https://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/
And if you look at the stats its advantages appear fairly marginal.

 

[IWT]

Many thanks both. I was under the impression that formatting an ssd did not properly, in some way, remove the written data. Am I wrong in thinking this? I was also under the impression that you could use Trim on external drive, again, wrongly?
I am just wallowing around trying to sort things out in my own head, so please forgive misguided ignorance!
Cheers.....

No offence intended, I promise; but yes, you are incorrect on both counts.

You can delete data through reformatting. In fact, if you go on to any of the data recovery websites (say Data Rescue as an example), you will read there that even professional data recovery agents find it near impossible to restore data from SSDs in comparison with spinning platter drives.

And you can't use Trim on External SSDs in the way you mean. Trim is for writing/storing data to an SSD in such a way that the data is distributed properly and not all SSDs can utilise the Trim facility anyway.

So if you reformat your Ext SSD and then start writing to it in the usual manner, any "original' data is irrecoverable.

Ian

 

[tonyt]

Many thanks! At least I now know!

 

[IWT]

Oh, one other thing about SSDs I might just mention in passing: never attempt to defragment an SSD. Doesn't work and can cause irreparable harm.

Ian

 

[tonyt]

Hi IWT
Is the data truly deleted and and all blocks emptied for writing to by using format? What I am trying to do is make sure I start with a properly empty ssd, and then make sure data is deleted as efficiently as possible on the fly, to avoid slow down by the OS having to delete data before writing to a block on save when the ssd is getting full.
Hmmm
Cheers....

 

[IWT]

Hello again. Always happy to do my best to help.

I understand your situation. If you reformat your SSD (you could use the security options to enhance the erasure, but it is not usually employed with SSDs). Then start writing to the SSD and you will be fine.

At least that has been my experience. I have several Ext SSDs and my iMac's main storage is a 1TB SSD. (Look at my Mac's specs on the left under my avatar). I've not encountered any problems.

One further thing about SSDs, apart from not defragmenting them, they last longer than a conventional spinning platter drive, but when they fail, they give very little warning and can die quite suddenly. Backups essential.

Ian