How do I securely erase data on a drive?

How do I securely erase data on a drive?

Purpose

Run a Secure Erase on your Synology NAS to securely and permanently delete all data on the drive. This article guides you on how to securely erase data before you discard or send the drive back to your manufacturer for repair or replacement.

Resolution

How to properly run a Secure Erase

  • We recommend not to run Secure Erase on a drive with too many bad sectors, or an SSD nearing its end of life.
  • Before running Secure Erase, make sure you have properly backed up your data.
  • The drive will be locked during a Secure Erase process and will be accessible after the procedure is complete. If the drive is removed from your Synology NAS during the Secure Erase process, please use the password "synology" to access the drive again.
  • If Secure Erase stops running unexpectedly, please run the procedure again in Storage Manager.

When not to run Secure Erase

  • If only one drive is without the System Partition Failed status while others have it, Secure Erase cannot be applied to that specific drive.1
  • Secure Erase is not available when the selected drive is still active in a storage pool.
    • To remove the drive from the storage pool, select the drive and click Action > Deactivate Drive (DSM 7) or Deactivate (DSM 6.2).2
  • Secure Erase is not available for SAS drives.
  • Secure Erase cannot be run on the drives installed in an expansion unit.
  • The estimated time is longer than expected. This usually occurs in high-capacity drives.
  • Certain drive models do not support Secure Erase.

Steps to run a Secure Erase

  1. In DSM, go to Storage Manager > HDD/SSD.
  2. Select a drive and click Action > Secure Erase.

Notes:

  1. For more information on drive statuses, refer to the respective help article for DSM 7 and DSM 6.2.
  2. Before removing a drive from its storage pool, make sure to check the RAID type and the number of drive failures that can be tolerated. For more information, refer to this article.
Purpose
Contents
Resolution
How to properly run a Secure Erase
When not to run Secure Erase
Steps to run a Secure Erase