Link for article SSD Imaging + TRIM Good reading

[Member Xunzi_23]

Fairly recent article about SSD workings, innovate by cheapening, i.e. lack of technical advances.
And plenty of, how the solid state devices work.

https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2019/01/life-after-trim-using-factory-access-mode-for-imaging-ssd-drives/

• This topic was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Xunzi_23.

[Member stevesr0]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Hi Xunzi_23,

I recall reading this after I accidentally deleted my Document directory (among many other articles).

The thing I was searching for was different – a step-by-step to setting up trim so it didn’t immediately remove deleted files.

I haven’t seen a simple answer that setting up periodic trim would safeguqrd against this. What I have read is that if trim is enabled, you delete something – it is immediately gone.

Hope I hear of a step-by-step that blocks this behavior.

(And yes, the fundamental answer is always have a backup, even for something you just created/edited/saved/downloaded.)

stevesr0

[Member Xunzi_23]

Helpful

Up

0

::

a step-by-step to setting up trim so it didn’t immediately remove deleted files

Buy Snake Oil,

Actualy immediate deletion is not usualy done, that is work for the
controller garbage collection.

Periodic trim is not immediate, you could though make a mistake at the wrong time.

If you are worried about important data save it to a decent HDD in parallell with a different name.
Do not use an SMR drive, they are bad for data retention.

SDD and NVME are fast but the more I read the more they remind me of storing water in a leaky bucket.

Search for worst SSD of all time, the name comes up. Groan, the latest from Samsung, no a previous model
the 840 with data retention times proven by a serious security and recovery company to be, in some cases
as low as two weeks if left unpowered.
Guess what, samsy offered a controller update, the cells were rewritten more often. Did it solve the problem,
no, if left unpowered the users lost data, if powered the devices life shortened. As most follow
the ads, buy same brand again sales rise….

By the way Patriot who made some very good devices has gone rotten, should presently be named failfast.

[Member techore]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Xunzi_23 wrote:

If you are worried about important data save it to a decent HDD in parallell with a different name.

or use a file system that supports snapshots. Better yet, setup another computer as a NAS. On the NAS, rsync important files and directory and use cron to do periodic snapshots using btrfs or openzfs. Not everyone has a second computer to setup as a NAS, but if you do, something to consider.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

Helpful

Up

0

::

I know the main topic here (and in multiple threads over the past few days) has been file system trimming, using the
[[[“fstrim – discard unused blocks on a mounted filesystem”]]].

But the matter brought up in this discussion is REALLY important, regardless of which type of storage technology or the method we use to manage it.

That matter is THIS – make absolutely certain that you have multiple copies of important information in multiple places – not simply meaning multiple copies on the SAME physical media – that STILL leaves the potential for a SINGLE point of failure.

Long time readers of this forum, here, and on several of the places that have previously hosted our forum, probably have, 5, 10, maybe more instances of people talking about and explaining the importance of backing up important stuff.

While I don’t back up every single thing I do every time, I definitely follow my own advice. I have important stuff sometimes 100% offline (maybe even on paper) and saved in a safe place. Online stuff I put in multiple places. In the past I might have saved it on a CD or DVD, more recently on a USB. I’ve used Cloud based storage, secured Email, and probably a few other techniques, but in short, no one single source of information for anything I consider important. If it happened to be REALLY secure, I’d either entrust it to an organization that insures whatever it is, and if it’s on a networked device, use multiple forms of security so that even if it’s compromised, at least it’s not SUPER EASY for someone to get at, they REALLY have to WORK at it, and therefore, it’s much less likely to be tampered with, when there’s so much other stuff that’s not very carefully protected.

So we protect important things, we save and take precautions with important things, and we have multiple copies of important things.

Probably beating this into the ground, but it’s important if your information is either personally or financially valuable to you.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member techore]

Helpful

Up

0

::

All good points, Brian.

I read the article and it’s an excellent primer in understanding the difference between the newer storage devices, SSD, versus disk storage.

I especially liked the discussion regarding forensics and ssd. We solved that problem with network imaging but not a practical solution for many scenarios. It is expensive from a licensing, storage, and network utilization perspective.

Thank you for sharing the article.

[Author]

Posts