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Best way to erase an SSD

JoshuaGuti

Title. I know most have software but the Samsung EVO dosent support windows 8, so what other methods are available? Thanks

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I have a EVO with windows 8 on it. If you mean the tool doesnt work on windows 8 then could you not just format it and remove everything

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From what I read its bad to format an SSD though?

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The Samsung software has a secure erase option i believe (i have an 830 series)

"We will never make a 32-bit operating system." -- Bill Gates, 1989

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From what I read its bad to format an SSD though?

It's not strictly bad, it just removes one entire read-write of every cell on the SSD. Basically, with how an SSD write, typically, if you say, delete a file, it leaves everything there, and simply marks those used blocks of memory as re-writeable. Now typically, SSD's won't writ over an old section, until the entire drive's been written to in one way or another. This isn't a problem, and is actually good since memory cells in SSD's have a limited number of read-writes. the problem with formatting, is it write over the entire drive, which means every single cell loses a read-write. If you do this a lot, you very quickly degrade the lifespan of your drive. Doing it once, should not be a problem though. Defragging on the other hand, that's a no on an SSD, that will greatly decrease it's lifespan since dfragging is a lot of read-writes.

I should point out, the writing to the end, before writing over old stuff is one way SSD's work, depending on the memory type used, depends on the write scheme, but in the end, the schemes are al designed to evenly distribute read-writes when possible so that the drive lives for as long as possible, and you don't get dying sections, and thus, decreased storage space over time.

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It's not strictly bad, it just removes one entire read-write of every cell on the SSD. Basically, with how an SSD write, typically, if you say, delete a file, it leaves everything there, and simply marks those used blocks of memory as re-writeable. Now typically, SSD's won't writ over an old section, until the entire drive's been written to in one way or another. This isn't a problem, and is actually good since memory cells in SSD's have a limited number of read-writes. the problem with formatting, is it write over the entire drive, which means every single cell loses a read-write. If you do this a lot, you very quickly degrade the lifespan of your drive. Doing it once, should not be a problem though. Defragging on the other hand, that's a no on an SSD, that will greatly decrease it's lifespan since dfragging is a lot of read-writes.

I should point out, the writing to the end, before writing over old stuff is one way SSD's work, depending on the memory type used, depends on the write scheme, but in the end, the schemes are al designed to evenly distribute read-writes when possible so that the drive lives for as long as possible, and you don't get dying sections, and thus, decreased storage space over time.

Thank you for the great answer, that gives me a much better understanding!

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