How to delete data on SSD?

[ISmokeAir]

So I have a 500gb Samsung 979 Evo and I want to delete ALL the data on it, but I don't know how to securely do that.

[Princess Luna]

Format it, with SSDs there's really not much to do, unlike old fashion HDDs retrieving the data is pretty impossible after it's erased.

 

The deal with HDDs was that the OS wouldn't truly delete the data but simply understand it could write other data on top, so you could still retrieve stuff even after the formatting proceed, but this is not really an issue to be concerned about with SSDs nowadays.

 

If you're running from the NSA microwave it.

[ISmokeAir]

9 hours ago, Princess Luna said:

Format it, with SSDs there's really not much to do, unlike old fashion HDDs retrieving the data is pretty impossible after it's erased.

 

The deal with HDDs was that the OS wouldn't truly delete the data but simply understand it could write other data on top, so you could still retrieve stuff even after the formatting proceed, but this is not really an issue to be concerned about with SSDs nowadays.

 

If you're running from the NSA microwave it.

Do you know a program that writes random 0s and 1s?

[DoctorNick]

38 minutes ago, ISmokeAir said:

Do you know a program that writes random 0s and 1s?

If you don't use the 970 evo as boot drive you can use Samsung Magician to secure erase the SSD.

You can also try this - should have a bootable iso - haven't tried it though - https://www.killdisk.com/killdisk-freeware.htm

[Slayerking92]

[LOST TALE]

2 hours ago, Slayerking92 said:

Think a lot of flash would still be readable.

[Suppersupport]

31 minutes ago, LOST TALE said:

Think a lot of flash would still be readable.

then flamethrower.

[Guest]

-

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

The problem is that wear leveling can cause the SSD to overwirte certain parts a dozen times and the rest of the drive can remain untouched.

The closest you are going to get to securely deleting data on NAND without actually destroying the SSD is to delete all the files, then use a tool like Dummy to generate one or more randomized files to fill the entire SSD. 

 

I used Dummy to generate a bunch of files in various sizes (100mb, 200mb, 300mb, 500mb, 1GB, 2GB, 3GB, 5GB, 10GB, 20GB, 30GB and 50GB) and keep those handy for when I want to securely erase an SSD or USB stick.  Just copy them onto the drive and they'll overwrite the free space. 

Once I filled the drive as much as possible, I'll right-click the disk and select "properties" to see how many bytes are left, then generate a file that's excactly the remaining size so I can fill that space as well.

 

It's labor-intensive and not perfect, but I'm not aware of a better non-destructive method.

 

 

Not sure if Dummy works on Win10, I only ever used it on Vista and Win7.  If it works, by all means let me know.