Migration.

[krakek]

So I have migrated from one SSD to another using the Samsung utility.

However my old drive still has the system partitions and the like.

 

Is there a way to clean it completely, ie before sale?

[adarw]

no, dont sell it. no matter what the buyer can find your stuff unless you have some really expensive software and hardware to do. if you have any private info you would be better off just using it yourself.

[krakek]

1 minute ago, adarw said:

no, dont sell it. no matter what the buyer can find your stuff unless you have some really expensive software and hardware to do. if you have any private info you would be better off just using it yourself.

Even with multiple runs of formatting?

 

There is also secure eraze but I didn't figure it out, it asks for an external boot drive for some reason

[adarw]

1 minute ago, krakek said:

Even with multiple runs of formatting?

im not sure but like i said you woulld be better off just keeping it

[krakek]

1 minute ago, adarw said:

im not sure but like i said you woulld be better off just keeping it

If you say so. I would still like to solicit additional information, I did not store any sensitive information on it and selling it can make sense.

On the other hand I can make it into a giant flash drive of doom

[Alby Tastic]

A full format (not quick) will usually make it reasonably safe.

[Kedohawyr]

Clearing an SSD is tricky.

 

Formatting or otherwise writing zeros to your SSD from your OS will not properly erase the data on an SSD though it will make it difficult to read through conventional means. This because SSDs perform wear leveling which involves swapping around which cell corresponds to which 'sector' that the OS sees on the drive. At a given time some of these cells won't even be visible at all (over provisioning).

 

To properly clean an SSD you'll need software from the manufacturer to perform what will be called a secure erase. This will send a special command to the SSD to perform an proper erase operation on every cell that contains data.

 

[krakek]

1 minute ago, Kedohawyr said:

Clearing an SSD is tricky.

 

Formatting or otherwise writing zeros to your SSD from your OS will not properly erase the data on an SSD though it will make it difficult to read through conventional means. This because SSDs perform wear leveling which involves swapping around which cell corresponds to which 'sector' that the OS sees on the drive. At a given time some of these cells won't even be visible at all (over provisioning).

 

To properly clean an SSD you'll need software from the manufacturer to perform what will be called a secure erase. This will send a special command to the SSD to perform an proper erase operation on every cell that contains data.

 

Found that on Samsung Magician, but the software won't allow me to run erase on the drive citing need for boot drive.

 

Do I have to create one, ie on external HDD?

[Kedohawyr]

24 minutes ago, krakek said:

Do I have to create one, ie on external HDD?

Yes, although just about any USB thumb drive will do and would be a lot more convenient. Some suggestions:

• Plug the stick into a USB 2.0 port (the plain black ones) if you have one, this will avoid missing driver issues that might occur with booting on a USB 3 ports.
• After creating the USB drive and powering down your system, unplug the drive(s) that you don't want to be erased before you boot up through USB. This will ensure you don't accidentally clear the wrong drive.

 

 

 

 

[krakek]

I have backups for any information I am concerned about loosing

 

So, to clarify, to run secure eraze I would need to actually boot from USB?

[krakek]

16 minutes ago, Kedohawyr said:

Yes, although just about any USB thumb drive will do and would be a lot more convenient. Some suggestions:

• Plug the stick into a USB 2.0 port (the plain black ones) if you have one, this will avoid missing driver issues that might occur with booting on a USB 3 ports.
• After creating the USB drive and powering down your system, unplug the drive(s) that you don't want to be erased before you boot up through USB. This will ensure you don't accidentally clear the wrong drive.

 

 

 

 

A silly question - how does one make such a drive?

The media creation tool seems to want to (re)install windows, but doesn't specify where, atleast to begin with. Which is concerning.

[krakek]

And magician does not see the USB drive