Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumData Destruction and Disposal Methods

A IT technician needs to sanitize several high-performance NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs) that contain confidential financial data. The company plans to reassign these drives to non-sensitive internal workstations. Which of the following is the most appropriate data destruction method to render the data unrecoverable while leaving the drives fully operational for reuse?

  1. Execute a manufacturer drive purge utility or perform a cryptographic erase.Answer
  2. B
    Expose the SSDs to a high-power degaussing wand.
  3. C
    Perform a standard operating system high-level quick format.
  4. D
    Delete all volume partitions using Windows Disk Management.

Answer

Executing a manufacturer drive purge utility or performing a cryptographic erase is the most appropriate method.
Executing a drive purge utility or cryptographic erase specifically targets flash-based media (SSDs/NVMe). It resets or destroys the encryption keys and clears all NAND flash blocks (including over-provisioned space), rendering data unrecoverable while leaving the drive hardware functional for future deployment.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the media type and organizational requirement
The target drives are solid-state drives (SSDs/NVMe) and must be sanitized for reuse.
Different storage technologies (flash memory vs. magnetic platters) require distinct sanitization techniques.
2
Evaluate sanitization methods against hardware compatibility and reuse requirements
Degaussing is ineffective on flash storage. Physical destruction (shredding/drilling) renders the drives unusable. High-level formatting or partition deletion leaves data recoverable.
Solid-state drives wear-level data across NAND blocks, requiring firmware-level commands (Purge/Cryptographic Erase) to properly wipe all blocks including wear-leveled and reserved space.
3
Select the correct sanitization procedure
A cryptographic erase or manufacturer-provided ATA/NVMe Secure Erase utility sanitizes all flash memory while preserving drive functionality.
This meets security standards for sanitizing SSDs intended for reuse.

Key Concept

SSD Sanitization and Data Disposal Methods
Rate this question

Topics

Data Destruction and Disposal Methods

More questions from this topic