Cleaning Surface Pro Tablets

[edwardsaus]

Hi,

Is it more secure to wipe a Surface Pro Tablet by first applying BitLocker Encryption drive, discarding the key securely and then logging into the device and cleaning the tablet using "Fully Clean The Drive" option as defined under the "Reset from within Windows" built-in Surface Pro AS COMPARED TO just using the "Fully Clean the Drive"?

PS: I just feel like the former is like filling the drive with random numbers (via encryption) then filling it with one pass of a character (via cleaning). The encryption key can be discarded by saving to a small-storage USB and destroying/multi-pass wiping the USB.

Thanks,

John

 

[jnjroach]

If you did the above procedure you would basically render the machine unusable as when you tried to reset the machine it would require the Key to proceed.

 

[edwardsaus]

Hi jnjroach, thanks for your response.

I was just trying to replicate how Microsoft would perform multi-wipe on Surface Pro as shown on the link here.

'How does Microsoft go about wiping the data from my Surface?'
"It depends on which Surface you have:
Surface / Surface RT: We use Windows Reset on the BitLocker encrypted drive, which is akin to cryptographic erase (multi-pass wipe and destruction of encryption key).
Surface Pro / Surface 3: We use Secure Erase methods by SSD OEM tools, either ATA Secure Erase or TRIM.''

How could one go about implementing multi-wipe on Surface Tablet? Can I perform ATA Secure Erase on a Surface PRO tablet too?

 

[jnjroach]

Just do a complete factory reset and when it gets to the final setup turn the machine off....

What you are attempting to do is for RT based machines. If you have access to ATA Secure Erase you can do it, if Bitlocker is enabled turn it off and then boot from the ATA Boot Disk.