I want to return my crucial mx300 to amazon, but first I have to secure erase all data on it. I don't have any particularly sensitive files, I'm worried mainly about passwords. Unfortunately I have snow leopard (10.6.8) installed on it, so it won't be possible to use FileVault. Searching in the answers to similar questions I found this method which could be handy in my case:
"I found a workaround. Restart the computer and hold option to enter the setup screen. Go into disk utility and select the drive. Erase the drive using "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted). Make a password for the encryption, it doesn't matter what it is because you won't need it. Hit "Erase". Now select the volume and the "Erase Free Space" and "Security Options" buttons should no longer be grayed out. Click and select your level of security and off you go. I presume "Erase Free Space" and "Security Options" should do the same thing because you just erased the drive so all space is considered free. This worked for me so let me know if it helps."
Will it be enough? Do you know other methods I can use?
Thank you
Best Answer
Apple removed the secure erase from SSD since they do not work like HDD where you can command a secure erase. THe best you can do is fill the drive up with some other data and reduce the portion of the memory cells that still contain unerased and original data.
THe NAND controller in SSD is the only way to ensure all cells are properly sanitized, so you would need a manufacturer specific utility to force all of the cells to be over-written with whatever data the manufacturer recommends.
Depending on why you are erasing, you would spend the time to get a custom tool or just copy new data on the drive or choose to physically destroy the SSD to prevent any recovery of the data.
Going forward, the only way to secure data on an SSD is to encrypt the data before it is written and then destroy the cryptographic key that can decrypt the data. No erasure of the data is needed, just key destruction.
In your case, you might just load Rick Ashley videos from YouTube and then change any passwords you really cannot afford to lose to some unique value so that in the remote chance a hacker gets your SSD and recovers data - they would only get to accounts you can fix later.