A question about Wiper

[mahler]

Hello!

Is it advisable to clean USB sticks or memory cards with Wiper (as whole or only free space)?

Thank you for your help!

[Augeas]

It's all a matter of opinion really. I would ask why you would want to do that? I don't think I have ever wiped a flash drive or card. If there is a a file that you're worried about then use Recuva to overwrite it. Mass writes to flash are untimately destructive, especially if done on a regular basis.

How are you getting on with the 10th? It's long overdue.

[mahler]

9 hours ago, Augeas said:

It's all a matter of opinion really. I would ask why you would want to do that? I don't think I have ever wiped a flash drive or card. If there is a a file that you're worried about then use Recuva to overwrite it. Mass writes to flash are untimately destructive, especially if done on a regular basis.

How are you getting on with the 10th? It's long overdue.

I never knew that Recuva also overwrites space. Also only the free space or the whole space?

What do you mean with this question?

What about SSD? My Samsung SSD doesn't support Secure Erase by Magician.

[Augeas]

Recuva only overwrites specific (deleted) files, not large areas of space. An SSD will not display the contents of deleted files, so secure erase or wipe free space is not required.

The tenth refers to your username. I'm surprised you're not aware of Gustav M. Just a little joke on my part.

 

[Andavari]

I sometimes will use Wipe Free Space on USB Flash Drives when they become unbearably slow and that fixes the speed issue. Although I haven't killed a drive using Wipe Free Space note that doing that can/may outright kill a USB Flash Drive if it's already worn out. In my opinion using CCleaner to Wipe Free Space from experience is "safer" than having any modern version of Windows do a Full Format which also securely wipes the drive but with Windows it's more-or-less guaranteed to kill specific brands every time such as SanDisk by write-locking the drive and continually trying to fix it kills the drive.

[mahler]

13 hours ago, Augeas said:

Recuva only overwrites specific (deleted) files, not large areas of space. An SSD will not display the contents of deleted files, so secure erase or wipe free space is not required.

The tenth refers to your username. I'm surprised you're not aware of Gustav M. Just a little joke on my part.

 

Of course I am aware of Gustav, I just didn't understand you mean his unfinished symphony.

Do you mean that deleted files on a SSD cannot be recovered?

[nukecad]

1 hour ago, mahler said:

Do you mean that deleted files on a SSD cannot be recovered?

Mostly Yes - but also No - it depends.

For technical reasons there is a slight possibility of recovering a deleted file from a SSD - that possibility is if it hasn't been long since the file was deleted.

But for general purposes you can say that deleted files cannot be recovered from an SSD.
As many have found out when trying to do just that.

To try and simplify the Techie bits:
(A lot of this I learned when wondering about TRIM and garbage collection on a SSD that I have connected over wifi as a network drive).

With HDD's once data is written in stays in that place on the disk even after deletion.
As it's still there then it can be recovered until it gets overwritten with something new.
Secure Deletion is simply overwriting the deleted file with something new. (Usually just random 1's and 0's).
Drive Wiping is the same but for the whole free space, or the whole disk.

SSDs work differently and can't overwrite 'deleted' data, it needs to be erased first.
SSD's tidy themselves up automatically and move existing valid data about, then erase (wipe) anything else.
That's called 'Active Garbage Collection' on a SSD, it happens automatically and means there is nothing left to recover.
https://uk.crucial.com/articles/about-ssd/active-garbage-collection

Quote

Flash memory, which is what SSDs are made of, cannot overwrite existing data the way a hard disk drive can. Instead, solid state drives need to erase the now invalid data.

(It's also partly why you don't normally need to defrag SSD's, the automatic garbage collection moves the valid data to the best location for it, thus 'defragging' it in the process).

Note:
Some recovery softwares will/do claim to be able to recover from SSD's - but that's only because of that time window for deleted files that haven't been garbage collected yet.
Also note that some will say that you can recover from a SSD if you don't have TRIM enabled.
Again it's not the full truth, if/when TRIM in enabled then garbage collection will happen more frequently, but even without TRIM garbage collection still happens, it just needs a different trigger than a TRIM.
So having TRIM turned off gives a longer 'window' of time to recover a deleted file from a SSD, but eventually garbage collection will fully erase it.
https://uk.crucial.com/articles/about-ssd/what-is-trim

Quote

Trim is beneficial, but not mandatory. Because some operating systems do not support Trim, SSD manufacturers design, create, and test their drives assuming that Trim will not be used.

For example TRIM is an ATA command so only issued over SATA connections.
If an external SSD is conected by USB then it can't get a TRIM command issued by the computer.
It will still garbage collect though, just not as often.
PS. Some external USB drive enclosures have built-in software that will regularly issue a TRIM command because the computer can't.