FuglyDuck , 5 hours ago

Even a single overwrite process is sufficient to stop most attempts at recovery- the only people who might be able to reconstruct that data are… like top FBI forensic labs, and similar.

Even then, most of the data would be coming back corrupted and mostly useless.

2 or 3 overwrites are sufficient to prevent that as well.

For SSD’s, a single overwrite renders it impossible, simply based on how the data is physically stored- there’s no residual “footprint” or “ghost”- the NAND flash memory used floating-gate transistors to store the data. Either the gate is flipped or it’s not, there’s no way to know if it was previously flipped, only what its current state is.

Physical destruction is usually only recommended for extreme cases, where that drive held extremely sensitive data- where the consequences of any amount of that data being recovered would be catastrophic, even then the process begins with overwriting data. (Also keep in mind just breaking the platers aren’t enough- they have to be shattered into ittybitties.)