Doing my yearly PC clean where I wipe my hard drive and SSD. I usually use Window's media creation tool to wipe my stuff. Is this enough?

AgentL3r · March 23, 2020

Every year I like to do a cleanup of my PC. Open it up, clean everything, wipe my drives and install Windows fresh.

My usual method is to just use the "delete" option within the advanced section of the media creation tool when first setting up Windows.

I just had a thought. Is this enough? Or is it worth doing a deeper clean. And if so, how do you recommend I do it?

TetraSky · March 23, 2020

It's enough.

Even more so for the SSD, with TRIM, everything is basically gone for good.

That said, there isn't much point in deleting everything unless you want to do a secure erase(don't do this on a SSD, only with HDD).

It's not like things will get faster.

dizmo · March 23, 2020

Seems excessive.

KowalskiDebug · March 23, 2020

5 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

It's enough.

Even more so for the SSD, with TRIM, everything is basically gone for good.

That said, there isn't much point in deleting everything unless you want to do a secure erase(don't do this on a SSD, only with HDD).

It's not like things will get faster.

In case you actually need to safely erase your SSD (if you are reselling it for example):
As @TetraSky mentioned, with SSDs, it's bad to perform a full format (which isn't safe anyway) or overwrite the data, as with HDDs, because it puts a lot of stress on the memory blocks, which shortens the lifespan of the SSD.

There is a function for this in most BIOSes. It's simply called "Secure Erase" and uses the ATA-"Secure-Erase" Command, a proprietary routine for securely erasing your SSD by either deleting the decryption key (many SSDs are internally encrypted by default) or applying a voltage spike to all available NAND in unison.

If you don't have this option you can also use a tool most manufacturers provide which also uses one of these methods e.g.: