Question Securely erasing SSDs (one NVME, one SATA) to give away or resell them

[bradnyk]

Hi all,

I am selling or giving to a friend some of my older computer parts, including two SSD drives -- one M.2 NVME and one 2.5-inch SATA. Both are Samsung drives. I've already backed them up. I have another drive I can use as a boot drive. I want to erase these 2 drives so (1) my old data isn't recoverable but (2) the drives are in condition to be resold or given to someone else who can use them immediately (install Windows on them, etc). I also don't want to compromise the lifespan of the drives, if possible.

What's the best way to sanitize these of my data, while keeping the drives in a condition to give to someone else? MB doesn't seem to have a secure erase feature. I have Samsung Magician installed, and that has a Secure Erase feature, so maybe that's the answer. But I've also heard of many third-party solutions -- those are fine, too, if they are preferable for what I'm trying to achieve.

And do I need to reformat the file system, like to NTFS, after wiping them?

Thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

My Asus B450-F ROG STRIX Gaming ATX mobo, as of BIOS 3003 (current is 4001 beta for 5000-series, haven't tried that one yet), does offer a "Secure Erase" feature for both NVMe M.2, as well as SATA SSDs.

You don't need to re-initialize and re-format the volumes to NTFS (separately), if you are going to use it with the Win10 installer on USB.

 

[SamMaster]

At work, we have parted magic, and in my research it is one of the most recommended 3rd party softwares. Else, the ones from the manufacturer of the drives works as well.

 

[damian101]

Standard way of doing this would be to perform an ATA Secure Erase for the SATA drive and an NVMe Secure Erase for the NVMe drive. On Linux that can be done with the hdparm and nvme-cli utilities, but on Windows you need to rely on third-party software, but as far as I know Samsung's "Samsung Magician" can do exactly that.
And yes, you'd need to create a new partition table (on Windows: Initialize Disk) and create a new partition after performing the ATA or NVMe Secure Erase for the drive to be immediately usable for the new user.

 

[Charlie98]

Else, the ones from the manufacturer of the drives works as well.

That's what I would do. Although it's been a while since I've used it, Samsung's SSD utility should do the trick. Personally, I use Acronis, but that's me.

 

[john3850]

I have used parted magic many times in 3 different mb and also used Samsung Magician.exe a few times.