Secure wipe an SSD before installing Windows

[banzaigtv]

I have an older Intel SSD which has an old Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 dual-boot setup which I'm not using on my main PC any longer (I installed Windows 10 on a newer SSD). I need to install it on an older Windows 7 PC and put Windows 8.1 on it. And no, I'm not upgrading it to Windows 10 because I tried upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and that PC did not like it. Before I install Windows 8.1 on it, I need to securely wipe the entire drive clean, removing all traces of my personal data from it. Older folks will be using that PC and I will not be the primary user of it. I've seen where disk drives can be wiped using CCleaner, but I don't want to go through the trouble of reinstalling that drive into my newer PC since I already put the drive into the old PC. If I create a Ubuntu bootable USB stick and run Linux from it, is there an easy way to wipe SSDs within that OS without fully installing Linux on that PC? I'm not too tech-savvy on Linux operating systems, so help will be appreciated.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Just hook the SSD to another working machine > Disk Management > delete all SSD partitions > load up CCleaner > go to Tools section and do a Full-Wipe on the SSD. Once it reaches around 10%, cancel and it's done/wiped.

If no other machine available, Boot from a Linux-LIVECD or HirensBootCD and wipe it that way. For HirensBootCD for example, use Active-KillDisk to wipe the entire drive.

[[AUT] Rurdo]

Do not Erase the SSD with any tool. Thats not how it works with an ssd. You cannot securely wipe a ssd.

[MaddDoktor [Linux]]

SSD's internally work somewhat different than a mechnical hard drive in that they cannot randomly change individual bits, they do it a block at a time. And if the block is not erased, it has to erase the block before it can write to it, slowing it up some. TRIM in Win7 or newer can clear blocks automatically as you delete files or programs. Trying to do something like write all zeros to the SSD may not do that and can also result in excessive wear leveling. There is an ATA Secure Erase command that can erase all blocks at once with minimal wear, but not sure how you can do that without a program.

My old Intel 80 GB SSD either came with such a program on small CD or I downloaded it.

You can get Linux based "Parted Magic" to do the Secure Erase with minimal wear, but it now costs $4.99 instead of being free.

Read: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/securely-erase-ssd-without-destroying/

I have been running Linux for over 20 years, since before I had Win95.

[[AUT] Rurdo]

Originally posted by MaddDoktor Linux:

SSD's internally work somewhat different than a mechnical hard drive in that they cannot randomly change individual bits, they do it a block at a time. And if the block is not erased, it has to erase the block before it can write to it, slowing it up some. TRIM in Win7 or newer can clear blocks automatically as you delete files or programs. Trying to do something like write all zeros to the SSD may not do that and can also result in excessive wear leveling. There is an ATA Secure Erase command that can erase all blocks at once with minimal wear, but not sure how you can do that without a program.

My old Intel 80 GB SSD either came with such a program on small CD or I downloaded it.

You can get Linux based "Parted Magic" to do the Secure Erase with minimal wear, but it now costs $4.99 instead of being free.

Read: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/securely-erase-ssd-without-destroying/

I have been running Linux for over 20 years, since before I had Win95.

best. description.

I think the SSD manufacturer maybe has a tool to secure erase and test the ssd.

[pasa]

Samsung drives comes with Samsung Magician that has secure erase feature. Other drives may have similar. Just use that.

[[AUT] Rurdo]

Originally posted by pasa:

Samsung drives comes with Samsung Magician that has secure erase feature. Other drives may have similar. Just use that.

+
Seagate has also its own tool

[Bad 💀 Motha]

U don't need any tools; CCleaner can do that.

Samsung doesn't work, unless u create a bootable media to do it.

[Hatman]

You really don't need to do ANY of the above...

Just put the SSD in, start the windows installation, and during the installation go to the manual harddrive selection menu. There you can delete any old partitions on the drive, then click next and the install will creat new, empty partitions to work with.

Yes, in theory, one "might" be able to recreate some of the old files one by one using a special recovery tool. But why in the world would those "older" folks you're giving it to even think of that?

[banzaigtv]

The SSD in question is an Intel 520-series 180 GB SSD. I had a cheaper SSD get hacked on that old PC while running Windows 10, rendering that drive useless. Now I'm taking security very seriously. I don't care who's using it. That drive needs to be 100% clean before installing Windows 8.1 on it. A single OS will not completely overwrite two Windows partitions.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yea, hmm the CCleaner method... you can use a high level wipe if u prefer.
Just delete the partitions firstly, so it's then a single clean drive, then secure wipe it.

[banzaigtv]

So use the Windows 8.1 install disc to delete all partitions, abort the Windows installation, plug the drive into another PC already running Windows 10, then use CCleaner to secure wipe the drive. Sounds about right?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If another PC is an option; then just do that, not the OS install media.
As a secondary drive in another system; that would be fine, then inside that OS, look at the secondary drive in Disk Managment, from here, delete all the partitions on that drive u wish to wipe; once they are gone, redo a single partition on the SSD and give it a drive letter (otherwise CCleaner can't see it) and then once done, run CCleaner > Tools > Drive Wiper

As you can see from these, what the options are for drive wiping.

http://imgur.com/a/DvlvM

And where it says "Entire Drive" this can be changed to be "Free Space Only" if u wanted to scrub the free space on a HDD (don't do that on a SSD that has data on it though)

But yea do Entire Drive to secure wipe your SSD and then select the pass method; around 3 passes is plenty for wiping.

[banzaigtv]

OK, guess I'll have to do that, then. I need to engage the boot menu on startup to ensure that the PC doing the cleaning does not boot to the old drive by mistake, especially if that PC previously booted to that drive. Thanks.

[vadim]

You can use hdparm utility to wipe disks. https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase
But not all devices supports this feature