Robert Blanko Posted May 24 Share #1 Posted May 24 Advertisement (gone after registration) So far, I do not plan to sell my M11s. However, in view of the recent discussion initiated by the user setuporg who was able to get at least some of his photos restored from the corrupted internal SSD, I am wondering how to safely erase all photos from internal memory before selling? With safely erasing I mean guaranteeing that it would be impossible to restore any (deleted) photo from the internal memory. If you want to safely erase data from your computer, there are software tools available, which (allegedly) do this. However, as it seems that you cannot connect your M11 to your Mac like an external drive, this does not seem to help. The built-in formatting function of the camera seems to be a black box and I'm not aware of its quality of erasing any data. Do you have any information in said respect? Or would you simply go for the brute-force solution and take as many fast series of photos of a brick wall or any other uncritical object until the internal memory is full and all your cat photos have been overwritten? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted May 24 Posted May 24 Hi Robert Blanko, Take a look here How to safely erase all photos from internal memory before selling?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Doc_P Posted May 24 Share #2 Posted May 24 SSDs are tricky. If you want to be certain, simply fill the internal drive with DIFFERENT pictures (select DNG + JPEGS, maximum resolution) - just to be certain that some internal compression algorithms does not interfere. Seems easier and quicker than any other method, isn't it ? And if you are paranoid about erasing: fill the SSD with pictures, do a format and refill once again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted May 24 Share #3 Posted May 24 On Mac, i erase the pic files from the SSD through Android File Transfer and format the SSD in the camera afterwards. I'm not aware of other ways but i can be wrong. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenykepesz Posted May 24 Share #4 Posted May 24 vor 14 Minuten schrieb lct: On Mac, i erase the pic files from the SSD through Android File Transfer and format the SSD in the camera afterwards. I'm not aware of other ways but i can be wrong. that's on an M11* which you own or have at hand ? that means that an external OS can have access to the M11*'s internal SSD device ? i am wondering what protocol that could be, i mean the true protocol under the hood...? which then i expect must be a universal protocol, not just MacOS specific ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted May 24 Share #5 Posted May 24 2 minutes ago, fenykepesz said: that's on an M11* which you own or have at hand ? that means that an external OS can have access to the M11*'s internal SSD device ? i am wondering what protocol that could be, i mean the true protocol under the hood...? which then i expect must be a universal protocol, not just MacOS specific ? My early M11. I'm no techie but the USB mode is PTP. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenykepesz Posted May 24 Share #6 Posted May 24 vor 11 Minuten schrieb lct: My early M11. I'm no techie but the USB mode is PTP. thank you, @lct, sounds reasonable, i also use MTP/PTP via jmtpfs on lnx, works perfectly fine. i just wasn't aware that one may be even able to reformat the exported partition of that SSD...? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted May 24 Share #7 Posted May 24 Advertisement (gone after registration) 2 minutes ago, fenykepesz said: thank you, @lct, sounds reasonable, i also use MTP/PTP via jmtpfs on lnx, works perfectly fine. i just wasn't aware that one may be even able to reformat the exported partition of that SSD...? I have no idea, After erasing the files with Android File Transfer, i just format the SSD the usual way in the camera. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenykepesz Posted May 24 Share #8 Posted May 24 vor 6 Minuten schrieb lct: I have no idea, After erasing the files with Android File Transfer, i just format the SSD the usual way in the camera. i see, @lct, you format the internal SSD memory in the camera via its built-in software, some GUI on the screened M11*s - while i own a screenless M11D and hence have no clue about such...though perhaps nowadays it's possible to format it via FOTOS and a newest M11D FW. in any case, to answer @Robert Blanko's original question, formating the internal SSD this way most likely just uses a fast superficial formating method which wouldn't low-level-erase traces of former imaging data. low-level formating would take much longer and perhaps doable if one had access to Leica protocols for doing that. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Blanko Posted May 25 Author Share #9 Posted May 25 @fenykepesz: The M11D also allows formatting via the fotos app. Had to do this once, as the camera erroneously reported that the ssd was full. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalHero1953 Posted May 25 Share #10 Posted May 25 There's only one way to render a drive unreadable. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 2 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/421503-how-to-safely-erase-all-photos-from-internal-memory-before-selling/?do=findComment&comment=5806944'>More sharing options...
jaapv Posted May 25 Share #11 Posted May 25 Blowtorch is good as well. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkm Posted May 25 Share #12 Posted May 25 @LocalHero1953 It’s only half of way 😉 Perhaps you remember what happened at the Guardian at the Snowden affair. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenInTime Posted May 25 Share #13 Posted May 25 Wear levelling used to be a thing for solid state drives; this spread out writes across the media so that one partition or sector was not taking all the write/read cycles. If that is still the case, you would want, as well as formatting the disk to blank file allocation table data, to also completely fill the disk with random photos or files. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenykepesz Posted May 25 Share #14 Posted May 25 (edited) vor 5 Stunden schrieb LocalHero1953: There's only one way to render a drive unreadable. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! i did just that last summer for some 50 superfluous HDDs (1-2TB units). but i used a 10mm drill bit on my Bosch drill to puncture each unit's HDD platters, all at once - took me a good hour...! alternatively, in case you have access to a multi-Tesla MRI machine, you may through your disks in there - may kill both HDDs and SSDs. Edited May 25 by fenykepesz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Blanko Posted May 25 Author Share #15 Posted May 25 vor 9 Stunden schrieb Al Brown: Formatting is never enough. For SSD's you also don't have have to rewrite anything to clear data. SSDs are not hard drives, and do not store data in a permanent magnetic state. https://www.doyourdata.com/erase-data/wipe-crucial-ssd.html Did you manage so see your M11 in the "finder" on your Mac or have access to the M11 through your Mac so that you could use this tool? I have a similar tool from another software provider. But the main problem I have in said respect is that I simply do not "see" the M11 when connected to my Macbook via USB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted May 25 Share #16 Posted May 25 24 minutes ago, Robert Blanko said: Did you manage so see your M11 in the "finder" on your Mac or have access to the M11 through your Mac so that you could use this tool? I have a similar tool from another software provider. But the main problem I have in said respect is that I simply do not "see" the M11 when connected to my Macbook via USB. I have no idea about Crucial but with Android File transfer, you can see your pic files on the finder and erase them from there. On the M11, suffice it to set USB Mode to PTP (Main menu page 4: Camera Settings > USB Mode > PTP) and connect the M11 with a USB cable to the Mac. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/421503-how-to-safely-erase-all-photos-from-internal-memory-before-selling/?do=findComment&comment=5807180'>More sharing options...
mottykytu Posted May 25 Share #17 Posted May 25 (edited) It is easier than you think, the SSD is much harder to recover than the HDD IF IT HAS BEEN OVERWRITTEN , Especially when Overwritten from 2 times and above So all you need to do is format the Internal SSD ==> COPY SOME "SAFE" PHOTOs TO THE SSD (FULL) ==> FORMAT it once more time ==> SHOT FOR FUN (SAFETY) PHOTO or COPY PHOTOS until the SSD is FULL one more round ! Take a little bit time, but quite sure no one can recover it from 2 times Overwritten ! Unless they are FBI or CIA, whom I believe also take months to recover overwritten SSD ! Edited May 25 by mottykytu Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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