Is it safe to format an SSD through Windows 10 Media Toolkit during boot?

I have a laptop with an SSD but I need to format it. And the only way for this to happen is through the Windows 10 Media Toolkit in an USB and reinstall it again.

Is it safe to use the format feature of the Windows Media Tool for the SSD?

I heard about TRIM Command and Secure Erase Command but I cannot do this since it's my only disk in my PC...

 

Why don't you simply run the Windows 10 installer and select manual install to format the SSD?

 

Windows can format SSDs but not secure erase.
Parted magic(Paid version) guide by Ultra Male
Freeware version by me.

 

I want to proceed the deletion process as I described through the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool (delete partition and all existing data in the SSD), the SSD won't lose speed or sacrifice performance because of that action?

I need to make sure that wiping all data through the Delete Partition method (in order to install a fresh Windows 10 afterwards onto a clean drive), won't by any means affect my SSD speed or perfomance

 

An SSD's performance is affected by simply reading cells; installing Windows 10 will make it 'old' before you've even used it. In other words; you're worrying about this too much.

What has given me better SSD performance (i.e. responsiveness) than a brand new, never before used SSD is installing Windows 10 x64 twice. I keep that performance edge by doing a PerfectDisk SMARTPlacement defrag at least monthly (after MS update day; second Tuesday of each month).

The first time, I still OP the SSD by 33%, but I simply don't use that setup. I immediately reboot the computer, start up the Windows 10 installer again, Format each partition, then delete them.

I then create a new partition that is OP'd by 33% and this is the Win10x64Pro install that I will use. I don't know why, but the computer is noticeably more responsive than when installing Windows to a brand new SSD the very first time.

Yeah; I'm very sensitive to having the most responsive system possible.

About a decade ago, Anand Lal Shimpi from Anandtech.com recommended that exact procedure (not doing the install twice; rather, formatting during setup).

 

@tilleroftheearth

Is my OP good doc?

 

On the 4TB EVO 850, you're short ~576GB from what I would use. On the 3x 2TB 960 Pro's in RAID0, you're short by only 262GB's.

But at these capacities, I think you're good!

Curious what are you running on this setup? This is obviously(?) not a notebook...

 

Check my sig bro, this is my laptop, and the only computer I own.

Why this setup? simply because I have a gigantic amount of movies collection and I don't like having anything external, and SSDs are the only option to give me such a large capacity. Heck I even have a 512GB SD Card that I dedicate for downloads as to not wear out my SSD more than it is already worn out

 

So everything resides on your taptop? Its better to have an off-site backup or archiving HDDs from Seagate/WD/Hitachi. I always download on HDDs. Maybe you need enterprise SATA SSDs to forget about wear and tear.
From the screenie it looks like your disk free space is similar to mine, hahaa.. You really take good care of your SSDs.

He's a taptop user aka MSI Book.
Does OP'ing really help on modern SSD with so much spare cells and factory OP?
I feel OP helps if you're writing 50GB or more per day the OP will help to maintain decent write performance on Heavy IO.

 

You can certainly try secure erasing SSD and it is rather quick and takes less than 10 secs to restore SSD to pristine state brushing aside already worn NAND/NOR cells.

 

Thank you all for your replies!

I have the following SSD in my notebook: 2.5" Toshiba TR200 240GB 3D TLC SATA (3 year warranty)

I got curious at what you guys were talking about. What's the whole story with the "OP" or "OPING" at a drive? What does that mean? I'm a bit confused

 

In SSD parlance, "OP" means over-provisioning. It is well documented that there are a limited (although large) number of writes an SSD's NAND cell/page can take before it becomes only able to just read data. In order to make sure that NAND Cells do not get an over-abundant number of writes, the SSD controller spreads data throughout the whole drive.

An 'over-provision' on an SSD means there are extra NAND pages the drive can use; therefore, spreading the writes over more available 'free' NAND cells/pages.. Note, some drives have a built-in over-provisioning of NAND cells that the drive can use that are built right into the drive. However, in the case of tiller or ultra, they can control a bit extra over-provisioning space by creating a smaller partition (disk space) than what is available on the drive. For example, creating a 800GB partition on a 1TB SSD, leaves 20% "end-user" over-provisioning.

A search on "over provisioning" may give you some more in-depth details. Otherwise, check out:

- https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/overprovisioning-SSD-overprovisioning

- https://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/overprovisioning

- https://blog.westerndigital.com/why-overprovision-an-ssd/

 

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/why-over-provision.760922/#post-9766709

Search with my name on the forum here, there are many more posts about this.

The most important part about OP'ing is that it gives the user as much performance from the storage subsystem as possible. In other words; it is how to get as close to the marketed performance you paid for (and even then, it is only ~half of what is claimed).

It does this by allowing the drive to be always ready to write as/when the user or O/S requests it. Without doing the read/erase/write dance that slows down SSD's to HDD levels.

I not only OP all my platforms with a minimum of 33% 'unformatted' (actual) capacity. I also defrag my SSD's with PerfectDisk's SMARTPlacement defrag to keep them as responsive as possible for the life of the system they're installed in.

Yeah; I also install Win10x64Pro twice on each brand new SSD (each time with 33% OP'ing or more...)... the first installs feel off to me. Like the SSD is stuttering and stalling. The second round? Feels like an SSD is supposed to feel.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...placement-defragging-with-perfectdisk.699187/

See:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/2738

See:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/2829