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I understand DBAN is not recommended for wiping SSD drives since DBAN was designed for HDD and SSDs should be wiped by either rotating the encryption key (if it is encrypted) or filling with zeros.

DBAN does offer a quick erase option that writes all zeros using one pass. Google searching doesn't show many results for this scenario, all the recommendations are to categorically not use DBAN on SSDs.

Is this scenario a smart usage of DBAN and if it does decrease the lifespan of SSDs, why?

mlhDev
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1 Answers1

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DBAN does offer a quick erase option that writes all zeros using one pass.

That's the problem. SSD lifespan is measured in number of writes. Writing something to SSD (zeros or not) reduces remaining lifespan.

Rotating the encryption key doesn't actually erase it, but since its content will now be decrypted with invalid key, you'll be getting random gibberish. Original data is not recoverable without the key that was used to encrypt it.

gronostaj
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