Need a motherboard that will allow the most NVME external drives as possible.

[bloodybastard69]

I need to build a system that will allow me to sanitize (KillDisk 3 pass DOD wipe) multiple NVME m.2 drives as possible.
Looking to do 8 or more at a time, and they have to be easily swappable. I have about 5000 drives to wipe.
Doing research, looks like I will need a board with multiple PCIe slots that can do bifurcation.
Looking to stay in the $2000 range if possible. There are stand alone units that can be bought for around $10,000 but that is not realistic for my budget.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[bug]

Wiping doesn't transfer much data, so maybe you just can put the drives in external USB enclosures instead?

 

[bloodybastard69]

I've been playing around with external USB enclosures for the past week. They are very unreliable and inconsistent. And unless I have them plugged into a Thunderbolt connection, very slow. The other problem is most of them have trouble detecting the serial number of each drive which I need for documentation. It's a pain having to input the serial numbers manually in KillDisk.
Surprisingly the best luck I've had with external wiping was on an M2 Mac Mini using a Thunderbolt 4 hub.

 

[bug]

Well, there goes that thought then...

 

[TheLostSwede]

Why not invest in a few of these instead?
Way cheaper, especially as the M.2 connectors have a limited amount of mating's, in the low 100's.
For example, this connector is good for only 60 insertions on average.

M.2 Connector A Key, H=8.5mm, Gen4 | ATTEND

Explore ATTEND's M.2 Connector A Key for unbeatable performance and adaptability. Everything you need for seamless connectivity.

www.attend.com.tw

That said, it looks like the vertical slots are a lot more durable, up to 5,000 mating cycles according to Amphenol which is one of the bigger connector makers.

https://www.amphenol-cs.com/product-series/pcie-m2.html#

Some of these should pass on all the data you need as well, but you might have to check with the manufacturer first.
There are also automatic erasers.

M.2 Duplicator and Eraser SATA/AHCI/NVMe - HDD Duplicators - Hard Drive Cloning/Copying | StarTech.com

Standalone M.2 SATA & M.2 NVMe Duplicator and Eraser - External HDD/SSD Cloner/Wiper for M.2 PCIe AHCI/NVMe, M.2 SATA, 2.5/3.5' SATA Drives

www.startech.com

 

[Bill_Bright]

For the record, you do NOT "wipe" SSDs. That is not effective due to the way data is written to SSDs and due to how wear-leveling and TRIM functions work. You must use a "Secure Erase" app to ensure all previously saved data on a SSD is no longer viable.

Only hard drives can be "wiped".

 

[bonehead123]

Just curious, but how the hell did you end up with 5000 nvme drives ?

Are you a drive recycler business or work in a huge corp that requires all old drives to be securely erased on a regular basis....

Cause even if you manage to do 8-10 at one time, that's gonna be one uber-slow, labor-intensive process

At one point in time, I had 44x nvme's, 26x rusters, 19x 2.5" sata, and about 60+ flash drives in my parts inventory. But after I started building rigs for money, I used up most of them, so now I only have about 5 of each for personal use, plus 9x of the 40x nvme's that I bought en-masse back in Dec (when the prices crashed !) for this year's upcoming client builds...

 

[TheLostSwede]

Another and maybe more cost effective way, would be to get something like this.
Then you can replace them as the slots fail, without damaging the motherboard.
This specific one require bifurcation support though, so an AMD system would allow you to use this in an electrical x16 slot.
There are single drive versions of this as well.

Another option would be something like this, but you'd have to get some PCIe or M.2 to U.2 adapters for this to work.

 

[ir_cow]

When I worked for a e-waste center we would have 6 mini computers lined up. 1 drive computer. Custom boot software would load and it auto wiped. If secure wipe was supported, it took 10 seconds, if not about 1hr per drive.

Want to do mass wiping at at time, get those 4x m.2 cards that require bifurcation. Grab a old AMD Threadripper with multiple full 16x slots and fill it up.

Other option is to find a used blade server that has 24+ hot swap bays.

 

[bloodybastard69]

Just curious, but how the hell did you end up with 5000 nvme drives ?

Are you a drive recycler business or work in a huge corp that requires all old drives to be securely erased on a regular basis....

Cause even if you manage to do 8-10 at one time, that's gonna be one uber-slow, labor-intensive process

At one point in time, I had 44x nvme's, 26x rusters, 19x 2.5" sata, and about 60+ flash drives in my parts inventory. But after I started building rigs for money, I used up most of them, so now I only have about 5 of each for personal use, plus 9x of the 40x nvme's that I bought en-masse back in Dec (when the prices crashed !) for this year's upcoming client builds...

A company I do business with acquired them. But they can only use/sell them if they are wiped with proof. Otherwise they have to be destroyed. They agreed if I can come up with a solution, I can keep half of whatever is properly sanitized.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Other option is...

...this. Satisfaction guaranteed!

 

[P4-630]

...this. Satisfaction guaranteed!

However watching NVMe drives destroyed is only half the satisfaction of regular HDD's imo...

 

[bloodybastard69]

This is the route I was thinking of going. Building a system with PCIe slots that can take this kind of board

 

[ir_cow]

So a Quad U.2 card that still requires Bifurcation and buying U.2 to M.2 adapters?

 

[bloodybastard69]

Yes, with something like this in the front bay. I want it to be as easily accessible as possible

Am I just overthinking this???

 

[P4-630]

I can keep half of whatever is properly sanitized.

Did you check a few with crystal disk mark how much % life is actually left?

 

[bloodybastard69]

Did you check a few with crystal disk mark how much % life is actually left?

Not yet. I buy and sell laptops in bulk. Most of the units I get have already been scavenged of the SSD drive. So I need these to put into units. Will test as I go.

 

[unwind-protect]

A used Xeon v4 board. One advantage is that registered DDR4 is dirt cheap, so you can back up all that storage with RAM.

Do you have 5.25" slots? If yes then https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B9HK4QG/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_3?smid=A1TSN35NIS24VZ&psc=1

and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KRNCH16/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_4?smid=AE2OZG2NN3099&th=1 and cables.

 

[Shrek]

Hot swap SATA? using several 10 port PCIe cards?

Rubber band to hold the NVMe drive to avoid the screw.

Run as many machines as will keep you busy.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Hot swap SATA? using several 10 port PCIe cards?

View attachment 352987View attachment 352988

I think those only work for M.2 B-key. Sata over M.2, not NVMe.

 

[ir_cow]

I think those only work for M.2 B-key. Sata over M.2, not NVMe.

Yeah Sata and NVMe are not interchangable tech.

Yes, with something like this in the front bay. I want it to be as easily accessible as possible
View attachment 352963

Am I just overthinking this???

The big question is NVMe hot swappable?

 

[Shrek]

How about these?

 

[unwind-protect]

Why not invest in a few of these instead?
Way cheaper, especially as the M.2 connectors have a limited amount of mating's, in the low 100's.
For example, this connector is good for only 60 insertions on average.

M.2 Connector A Key, H=8.5mm, Gen4 | ATTEND

Explore ATTEND's M.2 Connector A Key for unbeatable performance and adaptability. Everything you need for seamless connectivity.

www.attend.com.tw

That said, it looks like the vertical slots are a lot more durable, up to 5,000 mating cycles according to Amphenol which is one of the bigger connector makers.

https://www.amphenol-cs.com/product-series/pcie-m2.html#

Some of these should pass on all the data you need as well, but you might have to check with the manufacturer first.
There are also automatic erasers.

M.2 Duplicator and Eraser SATA/AHCI/NVMe - HDD Duplicators - Hard Drive Cloning/Copying | StarTech.com

Standalone M.2 SATA & M.2 NVMe Duplicator and Eraser - External HDD/SSD Cloner/Wiper for M.2 PCIe AHCI/NVMe, M.2 SATA, 2.5/3.5' SATA Drives

www.startech.com

View attachment 352901

I had one like this, but single M.2 NVMe.

It only worked once, then stopped. I suspect from dirt in the slot.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I had one like this, but single M.2 NVMe.

It only worked once, then stopped. I suspect from dirt in the slot.

Never owned one myself, but I borrowed one in the past and it was working just fine, the single drive type that is.
Could've been anything I guess, but dust can surely mess things up, if it ends up in the wrong place.

 

[azrael]

For the record, you do NOT "wipe" SSDs. That is not effective due to the way data is written to SSDs and due to how wear-leveling and TRIM functions work. You must use a "Secure Erase" app to ensure all previously saved data on a SSD is no longer viable.

Only hard drives can be "wiped".

To add to that, most SSDs are self-encrypting, meaning that you only need to throw away the encryption key (using an app) and data is no longer readable. Note, I'm not talking about encryption like BitLocker.