Wipe SSD

[stefanmz]

Hey so I want to install a new OS on my PC and I have a bootable drive for it. So before I do that I want to wipe my SSD,basically format it and wipe the data so my computer reports there is no boot media and does not want to boot. You know like it was when I purchased it and it had no OSes installed. Can I do that? I want to plug in my boot drive after that so don't tell me to do it from the boot drive. I want to do it from BIOS or something. 

[jaslion]

No you need something to wipe it and without booting to another bootable drive you cannot do that. So I will have to tell you that you'll have to do it from the new bootable drive during setup.

 

That or you take the drive out, put it in a different pc, wipe it and then put it back.

[stefanmz]

Hmm well ok then. Also if I want no data on it I want the drive to not remember it had Windows ever installed on it how should I do it?. Secure erase? Or something else?

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

Hmm well ok then. Also if I want no data on it I want the drive to not remember it had Windows ever installed on it how should I do it?. Secure erase? Or something else?

Just format it. Even a quick format is enough for the data to not be read by an os and find that there was windows on it before. Sure it's still there just flagged as can be overwritten but for 99.9999% of things thats more than plenty good.

[aDoomGuy]

Just delete partitions inside the Windows installer (where you choose where to install Windows) and the drive will be good as "new". The data itself will be present but Windows won't see it. Unless you are worried that someone may restore that data it is of no concern because the index will be cleaned thus Windows can't see any data there.

[gjkrisa]

Is there a reason you don’t want to see anything? 
what os you plan on using? 
windows advance settings is rather good about letting you delete then setup different partitions.

Although I do auto first so that windows has its best newb setup done then if I can’t add a another drive to system for data or back up I’ll add another partition for that using disk management.

[stefanmz]

23 minutes ago, gjkrisa said:

Is there a reason you don’t want to see anything? 
what os you plan on using? 
windows advance settings is rather good about letting you delete then setup different partitions.

Although I do auto first so that windows has its best newb setup done then if I can’t add a another drive to system for data or back up I’ll add another partition for that using disk management.

 

34 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Just format it. Even a quick format is enough for the data to not be read by an os and find that there was windows on it before. Sure it's still there just flagged as can be overwritten but for 99.9999% of things thats more than plenty good.

 

25 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Just delete partitions inside the Windows installer (where you choose where to install Windows) and the drive will be good as "new". The data itself will be present but Windows won't see it. Unless you are worried that someone may restore that data it is of no concern because the index will be cleaned thus Windows can't see any data there.

So anyway I had some issues with Windows some files getting corrupt and so on and I want to wipe it clean so there will be nothing and the new OS cannot access the corrupted data. Is a format enough? I read secure erase an SSD can damage it but there is ATA secure erase SSD. However is that needed and is it not dangerous?  Also the new OS is macOS so the drive will be formatted twice,once by Windows partitioning and second time by Apple's and with a new filesystem that's sn Apple one. So keeping this in mind is ATA secure erase safe and should I do it or is the double format enough?

[gjkrisa]

Hmm you may want to use something like spin rite first to read the drive of errors then the drive  should know not to use those blocks.

 

reformat is not writing much these days it’s more how you delete a file saying that a portion of drive can be written over. I would try not to do a secure wipe for drive life.  
 

here are some alternatives spin rite you have to pay for but it’s rather cheap but I’ve had issues using it and had to try something else I used Hirens boot disk to try another one out

https://alternativeto.net/software/spinrite/

[stefanmz]

13 minutes ago, gjkrisa said:

Hmm you may want to use something like spin rite first to read the drive of errors then the drive  should know not to use those blocks.

 

reformat is not writing much these days it’s more how you delete a file saying that a portion of drive can be written over. I would try not to do a secure wipe for drive life.  
 

here are some alternatives spin rite you have to pay for but it’s rather cheap but I’ve had issues using it and had to try something else I used Hirens boot disk to try another one out

https://alternativeto.net/software/spinrite/

Yes that's why I said ATA secure erase. That doesn't overwritten the files it uses voltage to wipe them. But I was wondering if it's safe

[gjkrisa]

Just now, stefanmz said:

Yes that's why I said ATA secure erase. That doesn't overwritten the files it uses voltage to wipe them. But I was wondering if it's safe

My understanding it’s the same that is how ssd work. So both should be just as destructive. 

[stefanmz]

4 minutes ago, gjkrisa said:

My understanding it’s the same that is how ssd work. So both should be just as destructive. 

So it's safe to ATA secure erase an SSd with voltage? That cannot damage the SSD

[gjkrisa]

Here are some good things to look at I haven’t used windows check disk for some time I’m sure the reason I didn’t like it was lack of knowing what it was doing and how long it was going to take or thinking it was only looking at files and not sectors. 

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/ssd-repair-tool-7201.html

[stefanmz]

2 minutes ago, gjkrisa said:

Here are some good things to look at I haven’t used windows check disk for some time I’m sure the reason I didn’t like it was lack of knowing what it was doing and how long it was going to take or thinking it was only looking at files and not sectors. 

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/ssd-repair-tool-7201.html

My drive is not corrupted. Windows itself is a but screwed up but my drive is fine

[gjkrisa]

10 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

My drive is not corrupted. Windows itself is a but screwed up but my drive is fine

 

10 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

My drive is not corrupted. Windows itself is a but screwed up but my drive is fine

You say you don’t want windows to access corrupted parts of the drive if trim is working it shouldn’t automatically but to be sure you can scan the drive for errors. 

[stefanmz]

12 minutes ago, gjkrisa said:

 

You say you don’t want windows to access corrupted parts of the drive if trim is working it shouldn’t automatically but to be sure you can scan the drive for errors. 

Yeah I can do that. But I think you misunderstood me. The drive is not corrupted I just don't want any corrupted FILES from Windows to be left not corrupted PARTS of the drive 

[GuiltySpark_]

3 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

Yeah I can do that. But I think you misunderstood me. The drive is not corrupted I just don't want any corrupted FILES from Windows to be left not corrupted PARTS of the drive 

I skimmed this this thread but what you seem to be describing is a very simple process that's actually been described a few times in this thread already. Boot to the new USB stick you made, using that installer delete the existing partitions which will wipe out windows entirely, then just start the new install. ez pz

[stefanmz]

11 minutes ago, rickeo said:

I skimmed this this thread but what you seem to be describing is a very simple process that's actually been described a few times in this thread already. Boot to the new USB stick you made, using that installer delete the existing partitions which will wipe out windows entirely, then just start the new install. ez pz

Yeah I know I will do that but I was wondering if I want to ATA secure erase my SSD to completely wipe it or it's not worth it?

[GuiltySpark_]

Just now, stefanmz said:

Yeah I know I will do that but I was wondering if I want to ATA secure erase my SSD to completely wipe it or it's not worth it?

Worth is up to you. Its not worth it to me, not even close.

[stefanmz]

5 minutes ago, rickeo said:

Worth is up to you. Its not worth it to me, not even close.

Ok well maybe I won't we'll se. If I just format it can I do so with an Ubuntu live cd USB without installing Ubuntu.  Like format and exit 

[aDoomGuy]

1 hour ago, stefanmz said:

So it's safe to ATA secure erase an SSd with voltage? That cannot damage the SSD

It wont damage your drive but it will degrade it. A SSD have a finite amount of data that can be written to it and secure erase is used to permanently get rid of all the data (if you want to sell the drives or scared what the feds may find and so on). Secure erase is not needed in your case. Secure erase works by writing 0 and 1 over all the data that is there. 

 

Just delete the partitions (all of them) and create new one. There will be no files present that will corrupt Windows from the old installation.

[aDoomGuy]

21 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

Ok well maybe I won't we'll se. If I just format it can I do so with an Ubuntu live cd USB without installing Ubuntu.  Like format and exit 

Just put in your Windows install USB and boot on it. Choose to install Windows and when it asks you where, remove the old partitions and create a new one. The installer will format it for you.

[stefanmz]

12 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

It wont damage your drive but it will degrade it. A SSD have a finite amount of data that can be written to it and secure erase is used to permanently get rid of all the data (if you want to sell the drives or scared what the feds may find and so on). Secure erase is not needed in your case. Secure erase works by writing 0 and 1 over all the data that is there. 

 

Just delete the partitions (all of them) and create new one. There will be no files present that will corrupt Windows from the old installation.

First ATA secure erase does not overwritten files. It shocks the drive and deletes them that way. Check this out. Also I won't be installing windows and I don't have installation media setup right now. I just need a tool to wipe it before I install my new OS. So I was wondering if I could use the Linux installer to wipe it without installing anything so I don't have to wait for a windows usb to be created just to use it as a partition tool

[aDoomGuy]

2 hours ago, stefanmz said:

First ATA secure erase does not overwritten files. It shocks the drive and deletes them that way. Check this out. Also I won't be installing windows and I don't have installation media setup right now. I just need a tool to wipe it before I install my new OS. So I was wondering if I could use the Linux installer to wipe it without installing anything so I don't have to wait for a windows usb to be created just to use it as a partition tool

 

Any OS installer will format the drive if you ask it to. I couldn't see you specifying which OS you wanted to install so I assumed Windows. If I was you and the drive was more important to me than permanently delete data (unless I had company secrets or incriminating evidence etc.) I would not be "shocking" my drive with anything.

[stefanmz]

9 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

Any OS installer will format the drive if you ask it to. I couldn't see you specifying which OS you wanted to install so I assumed Windows. If I was you and the drive was more important to me than permanently delete data (unless I had company secrets or incriminating evidence etc.) I would not be "shocking" my drive with anything.

Update: I successfully completely erased my drive. Since it’s an NVMe it uses NVMe secure erase which is the NVMe equivalent of the ATA one. The ATA is for SATA ,also it sounds scary shocking but I couldn’t explain it otherwise I meant apply voltage but it’s kind of the same thing. It took a few seconds and everything was gone, Now I can install new OS which is macOS so if you or anyone here has any expertise in macOS on PC I need some help 

[stefanmz]

On 2/3/2022 at 5:38 AM, stefanmz said:

Update: I successfully completely erased my drive. Since it’s an NVMe it uses NVMe secure erase which is the NVMe equivalent of the ATA one. The ATA is for SATA ,also it sounds scary shocking but I couldn’t explain it otherwise I meant apply voltage but it’s kind of the same thing. It took a few seconds and everything was gone, Now I can install new OS which is macOS so if you or anyone here has any expertise in macOS on PC I need some help 

Don't need any more help, I got a MacBook Air