How can I secure erase my Plextor M6e PCIe m.2 SSD? Plextor REFUSES to tell me!

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ambush

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Jan 13, 2002
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Hello

I wish to perform a secure erase/format on my Plextor PX-G256M6e v1.04 PCIe m.2 ssd drive. Whenever I try to do so using their software utility Plextool v1.1.5, it produces an incomprehensible (because of terrible translation to English) error message: "Security frozen lock might be detected on the drive, so please replug your drive to start Secure Format!" :mmmfff:

Naturally, I am not running Plextool from the SSD itself. I booted 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 from a normal hard drive as drive C. But it didn't work that way either, and even when I tried setting the SSD "offline" using Windows Disk Management, I still always get that same inexplicable error message!

So how on earth am I supposed to perform a secure erase/format? Obviously I cannot disconnect the PCIe m.2 drive and then re-connect it (i.e. "replug your drive") while the system is running, since it would cause a catastrophic failure of my entire system (even if it were physically possible - which it isn't)!

I am extremely frustrated by Plextor's decision to REFUSE to provide usable and comprehensible user documentation for this product. :fou: So I'm forced to turn to this forum for help.

I anyone knows how, I beg you to please respond with an understandable procedure to secure erase/format this drive.


Thank you VERY much!

p.s.: I will NEVER buy another Plextor product!!
 
Solution
Hawkeye22
As you have found out, the way to remove a FREEZE LOCK is to power up the drive after booting or by removing and restoring the power after booting. Some third party programs claim to be able to remove the freeze without recycling the power. I've never used any of them, so use at your discretion.

http://www.blancco.com/en/benefits/ssd-erasure/
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

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Feb 10, 2006
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As you have found out, the way to remove a FREEZE LOCK is to power up the drive after booting or by removing and restoring the power after booting. Some third party programs claim to be able to remove the freeze without recycling the power. I've never used any of them, so use at your discretion.

http://www.blancco.com/en/benefits/ssd-erasure/
 
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ambush

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Thanks, ykki, but just FYI: NO software or hardware erasure method designed to work with standard media could ever hope to truly erase SSD media. There are much more technically accurate and exacting explanations here at Tom's, but if you'll accept a rough and not-particularly-accurate summary, the reason such methods will inevitably fail is because old SSD data is usually not actually deleted or over-written as they would be on hard disks and other traditional media, no matter how many passes you use. Instead, the old data can well be (unpredictably) retained unchanged, and a new area of the SSD media is then used to store the new values of the data in question (though trim commands and the like help this situation to varying degrees).

Besides, I already own CCleaner Pro, and not even the Pro version can securely erase SSD drives...

To learn more about why traditional media erasure will not work on SSDs, see, for example:

Erasing SSDs: Security is an issue

SSD security: the worst of all worlds

No, Hawkeye22 has a much better suggestion...
 
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ambush

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Thanks enormously, Hawkeye22! Your lead was a huge help, even if it turned out that Blancco v5 (only v5 would have the new lock-releasing feature) turned out to be a dead end for me. You see, if Blancco v5 is actually available right now (which doesn't appear to be the case), you are forced to contact the company and ask for information! This is never a good sign, at least in terms of affordability, anyway.

But since my need was urgent (because I wanted to return the Plextor SSD before the RMA period elapsed), I had to turn elsewhere. The only other alternative I could find over the course of days of googling was "Parted Magic"'s secure erase SSD feature. It was a truly awful experience to finally reach the point where Parted Magic actually displayed something vaguely legible on the screen (I hate(!!) all flavors of Unix), after many trial and error attempts it was finally able to release the freeze lock on the drive and securely erase (to some reasonable extent, anyway) the SSD.

I never want to repeat that dreadful experience, so I do hope Blancco v5 is eventually released and isn't as horribly expensive as most enterprise software is...


Thanks again!
 
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