Cleaning / removing all data from Intel SSD

Hi there,

I just purchased a used Lenovo laptop and would like to clean all the data; including, the operating system from the drive. The last time I wanted to do something like this was years ago with a regular disc drive when it was much simpler.

The drive is an Intel 320 series SSD. Can anyone advise me how to whipe the drive completely clean. I mean interms of the process and what tools to use. I read that filling the drive with zeros is not recomended. I'd loike to keep to safe methods that don't risk the integrity of the drive.


My second question is regarding security. I would like to make sure the previous owner does not have any software stored on board the computer to hack me or track me or snoop my data in any way. Is there any way I can check for this? It's a fairly new T420 Lenovo and the hardware seems pretty advanced, just seems like a lot of places to store this type of software and I just want the peace of mind that I looked everyone. I have heard of situations like mine that ended in malicious activity.

Thank you in advance!

 

You could use the Intel SSD toolbox to perform a secure erase, that should take care of wiping the drive, but you'll have to reinstall the OS. Parted Magic can also perform a secure erase.

 

I'd only worry about doing a secure erase on a SSD if it was something I'd used (with my data on it).

w/ regard to existing software on the drive, odds are that a simple delete and re-partitioning of the SSD will remove any risk.

BTW I'm sure that if I'm wrong, someone will correct me.

To me it's kind of a trivia question.

Hopefully tilleroftheearth will add a few comments on this.

 

There's 3 different ways I've used to clean used SSDs

Secure Erase
Diskpart
Format and Delete Partitions in Windows Setup.

I've found no difference in performance after any of the 3.

If you do the Secure Erase then the drive will then need to be initilized and setup as a basic volume,formated,drive letter assigned and made active.This can be done in Control Panel>Administrator Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management if you have another drive to boot into Windows.

Most of the time I do the Format and Delete of all showing partitions in the Windows setup by clicking on Disk Options at the screen after choosing Custom Clean Installation.

After you format and then delete all showing partitions there should be only 1 partition remaining where the size on disk is exactly the same as available size.

When this is done proceed with the installation.

If installing from USB media remove the flash drive(s) during the 1st reboot or the installation process will start from the beginning after the reboot.

 

Secure Erase will recover performance the most because it will basically clear all the cells and no GC required. It's as fresh as the drive can get.