The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Best way to wipe ssd?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Greel, Jun 15, 2018.

  1. Greel

    Greel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    401
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Selling an AW laptop with 2 m.2 drives and i have already reset the PC with the erase option.


    what would be the next step to wipe any remaining data from the 2 ssd?
     
    Greel, Jun 15, 2018
    #1
  2. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    560
    Messages:
    1,645
    Likes Received:
    788
    Trophy Points:
    131
    dban
     
    senso, Jun 15, 2018
    #1
  3. Greel

    Greel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    401
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    56
    dban on a ssd?
     
    Greel, Jun 15, 2018
    #2
  4. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    560
    Messages:
    1,645
    Likes Received:
    788
    Trophy Points:
    131
    It shouldn't kill them, but it might fail due to how it works.

    Search the manufacturer site for a secure erase tool, Crucial Storage Executive has a Sanitize drive that will reboot the pc and do a secure erase, Samsung, and other brands should/have similar tools.
     
    senso, Jun 15, 2018
    #3
  5. Greel

    Greel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    401
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    56
    ssd manufacture? i believe dell put a toshiba m.2 for the OS and my 2nd drive is a samsung m.2

    is there anyway to do it without having to recreate an account? i already did that windows 10 reset with erase all option.
     
    Greel, Jun 15, 2018
    #4
  6. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    560
    Messages:
    1,645
    Likes Received:
    788
    Trophy Points:
    131
    The erase all isn't a low level format, if you run photorec in a liveboot pen you will see all your files.

    I dont have any Samsung drives, but they say you can run the Samsung Secure erase in DOS mode, not sure if there is a way to make a boot pen without installing it, but you can do that in another pc.

    And given that secure erasing the SSD will delete your windows install, it not really a limitation, because you will need to re-install it again.
     
    senso, Jun 15, 2018
    #5
  7. Greel

    Greel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    401
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    56
    i dont have another computer that i can do it from at the moment.

    what the easiest way to do the erase from the laptop itself?
     
    Greel, Jun 15, 2018
    #6
  8. Greel

    Greel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    401
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    56
    If i use Unetbootin and parted magic on both ssds, and then install windows would i be ok to sell them?
     
    Greel, Jun 15, 2018
    #7
  9. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    560
    Messages:
    1,645
    Likes Received:
    788
    Trophy Points:
    131
    Best way to ensure secure erase is to use the manufacturer tools, formating the SSD, even using a low level format does not guarantee that all data is removed.
     
    senso, Jun 18, 2018
    #8
  10. Greel

    Greel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    401
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    56

    isnt the manufacture tool just a low level format?

    i ended up using nvme-cl on a ubuntune live session and shipped it out this morning
     
    Greel, Jun 19, 2018
    #9
  11. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    560
    Messages:
    1,645
    Likes Received:
    788
    Trophy Points:
    131
    It uses special not standard commands to issue a low level erase that ensures and guarantees that all chips are wiped clean and bypasses the wear leveling algorithms so there is no more writes than those that are necessary.
     
    senso, Jun 19, 2018
    #10
  12. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

    Reputations:
    9,431
    Messages:
    58,189
    Likes Received:
    17,897
    Trophy Points:
    931
    I thought it just reset the internal encryption key so any data is worthless?
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 19, 2018
    #11
  13. p0och

    p0och Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    46
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    16
    the best way is to enable file encryption for the drive - this forces every cell to be flipped regardless if it has data on it. and then perform a sanitize or secure erase. Guaranteed surefire way to properly wipe even a cheap ssd clean.

    nvme ssds are a bit more tricky though
     
    p0och, Jul 10, 2018
    #12