Formatting SSDs for selling

[Stahlmann]

i'm going to sell my old SSD. The SSD in question was my Windows boot drive, so there is probably a lot of sensible information on there. Of course i want to fully format it before sending it off. What is the right way to go here to make it as hard as possible to recover any files currently on there.

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

i'm going to sell my old SSD. The SSD in question was my Windows boot drive, so there is probably a lot of sensible information on there. Of course i want to fully format it before sending it off. What is the right way to go here to make it as hard as possible to recover any files currently on there.

Overwrite all of the drive with empty data.

 

Basically powershell and then this stuff: Format-Volume -DriveLetter C -FileSystem FAT32 -FullFormat –Force

 

Of course ntfs or whatever can be done I just took the command from google to not have any mistakes in it which there still are cuz copy paste :p.

[Stahlmann]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Overwrite all of the drive with empty data.

Is there still a chance for anything to get recovered?

 

I don't know much about this stuff and i've heard stuff about HDD data recovery even when these things are completely broken.

Maybe this all works differently for SSDs idk...

[jaslion]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

Is there still a chance for anything to get recovered?

 

I don't know much about this stuff and i've heard stuff about HDD data recovery even when these things are completely broken.

Maybe this all works differently for SSDs idk...

Basically every single bit of data becomes a 0 with that command so good luck getting any data from that. Yes broken drives can be recovered as well the data has not been wiped it's merely physical damage to the disk.

 

Wipining still works the same for both an ssd and hdd. A quick format just says the data currently on the drive can be overwritten so it's still there until it is changed. A normal format tends to destroy more data but most is still intact. A full zero write means there is nothing on the drive but 0's which is all trash data.

[191x7]

3 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Is there still a chance for anything to get recovered?

 

I don't know much about this stuff and i've heard stuff about HDD data recovery even when these things are completely broken.

Maybe this all works differently for SSDs idk...

Use Parted Magic to do a Secure Erase on the drive.

[Stahlmann]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

A quick format just says the data currently on the drive can be overwritten so it's still there until it is changed. A normal format tends to destroy more data but most is still intact. A full zero write means there is nothing on the drive but 0's which is all trash data.

Ah, didn't know what a quick format was all about. That explains why its so much quicker.

[191x7]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

Ah, didn't know what a quick format was all about. That explains why its so much quicker.

Even a "Quick Format" is harder to recover from on an SSD since the data on a HDD is written sequentially while it's all random access on the SSD. Meaning, on a HDD it's easy to recreate a file table.

[Stahlmann]

@191x7 @jaslion

 

Thanks for the Tips! I'm gonna try the powershell thing this evening. If i can't get it to work for whatever reason i'll try Parted Magic.

[jaslion]

9 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Even a "Quick Format" is harder to recover from on an SSD since the data on a HDD is written sequentially while it's all random access on the SSD. Meaning, on a HDD it's easy to recreate a file table.

That and an ssd will just started scrambling data when it is listed as overwriteable by a quick format simply due to how ssds operate.

[Stahlmann]

@jaslion @191x7

 

One last question: Can i just plug the SATA ssd into my PC or will i run into trouble when the boot manager suddenly detects 2 windows installations?

[SavageNeo]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

One last question: Can i just plug the SATA ssd into my PC or will i run into trouble when the boot manager suddenly detects 2 windows installations?

you can. but when you boot you have 2 options to boot from. you have to choose one of them

[jaslion]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

@jaslion @191x7

 

One last question: Can i just plug the SATA ssd into my PC or will i run into trouble when the boot manager suddenly detects 2 windows installations?

As long as the bios doesn't go wonky and start from the wrong drive there is no problem with doing that. If it does decide to be wonky just forceboot it from the right drive.

[Stahlmann]

Just now, SavageNeo said:

you can. but when you boot you have 2 options to boot from. you have to choose one of them

Just now, jaslion said:

As long as the bios doesn't go wonky and start from the wrong drive there is no problem with doing that. If it does decide to be wonky just forceboot it from the right drive.

 

So basically when i manually boot to my new install through the boot manager it's fine. Got it!

 

Thanks again!

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

 

So basically when i manually boot to my new install through the boot manager it's fine. Got it!

 

Thanks again!

Yeah if it does a bad just hit the f11 key or whatever for the bootmanager in the splashscreen and select the correct drive.

[SavageNeo]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

So basically when i manually boot to my new install through the boot manager it's fine. Got it!

yes, but it should show you this when you start your pc 

 

[Gibs960]

When I had to wipe my old SSD, I downloaded a tool from the SSD manufacturer that wiped it.

 

According to my research, rewriting over the data can significantly lessen the lifespan of the drive unlike HDDs.

[Chionele]

11 hours ago, Gibs960 said:

According to my research, rewriting over the data can significantly lessen the lifespan of the drive unlike HDDs.

In a way, but not really in any relevant amount. SSD's do have a limit of total writes, but unless you keep on doing that every single day you're likely not going to reach that point in regular use anyways.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

13 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

Is there still a chance for anything to get recovered?

 

I don't know much about this stuff and i've heard stuff about HDD data recovery even when these things are completely broken.

Maybe this all works differently for SSDs idk...

you can recover a damaged hdd. thats why they just take a spike through hddswhen they are recycled. you have to dystroy the platters. you would have to write blank data (or preferably porn links) to a hdd before you do one final wipe.