Erase an SSD before returning it?

[idata]

I have an X25-M SSD that I need return for RMA due to some bad sectors. Before I send it off I'd like to erase all the data on it. Does Intel provide any tools for me to do that?

[idata]

the command

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=4M appears to be working from ubunto.

I'll confirm when it completes.

This command writes a file to a requested partition, but it does not delete the partitions. Expermenting with a drive it appeare the only way to completely erase the drive and all blocks and partitions is the hdparm command. If there is another way someone please chime in.

[idata]

Thanks everyone for replying with the all the suggestions. hdparm running in Ubunto turned out to do the trick in my case. Along the way I discovered a few things that may be useful for other heading down this path in the future:

1) traditional disk wiping programs (e.g., DBAN) may not actually destroy all the data as intended due to the wear-leveling built into SSDs. This premise is somewhat contested but what I read cast enough doubt that I looked for other options.

2) the ATA Secure Erase command - if supported by the drive manufacturer - resets the drive back to factory status. For an SSD, this means clearing all the cells. For an HDD, they likely implement a 0-write or DBAN-type algorithm to wipe the contents.

3) HDDErase 4.0 doesn't support the Intel X25-M line, but there's apparently a 3.3 version that does. I ran into numerous issues getting 3.3 configured on a bootable USB flash drive and then having it actually recognize the drives in my system. This could be related the old hardware I am using.

4) there's a Windows version of hdparm out there that looked like it may work for me. But even though the drive was not in use, Windows must've had some lock on it because hdparm on Windows would always fail with a Input/Output error when running the --security-erase command.

In the end I followed the instuctions from https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase to create the Ubunto Live CD and succesfully ran hdparm from there. The insturctions on running the tool are very clear and concise.

Thanks again for all the responses!

[idata]

There is one famous application for Windows called SDelete:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx

[idata]

What do you do though if the drive is Dead? No app sees it?

[idata]

Same question was just asked earlier today in another thread:

/thread/23573?tstart=0 http://communities.intel.com/thread/23573?tstart=0