Flash storage has an inherent limitation in that data may only be written to and erased from a given location a certain number of times. To securely erase data, hard disk drives fill the occupied space on the drive with a file consisting of zeroes or execute multiple writes of different characters for more, see Securely wipe disk drives. Standard methods of secure drive erasure do not work with solid-state drives (SSDs). Secure drive erasure is the process of erasing all or part of a storage device so that the data it contained is difficult or impossible to recover.
