If you want to delete an SSD safely, the normal methods for classic hard drives will not help you. The reason lies in the structure and technology of an SSD. In the following article we describe some options and Free tools with which you can safely delete hard drives and SSDs.
How can I delete a hard drive?
In order to safely delete a hard drive, the occupied memory areas must be overwritten. There are numerous free tools for this.
To safely delete an SSD, you must use special tools from the manufacturer or a Linux distribution, which can also safely delete an SSD.
1. Delete and formatting are not safe soldering dogs
A contribution from the CT is currently showing how important the secure deletion of data carriers is. On Ebay, someone had bought a used SSD, which contained sensitive data from a youth welfare office and an approval office. With it You do not get your data in the wrong hands when selling a data carrier or the entire PC, you must therefore delete the data safely and completely.
Unfortunately, many users are still incorrectly believed that the data is automatically irretrievably destroyed when deleting under Windows or other operating systems. However, this does not apply.
If the hard drive were a book and the file to be deleted, a text on a page in the book, the normal deletion of files is Only the entry in the table of contents on this page deleted. However, the page itself remains in the book until a new text is stored there.
When deleting files on a hard drive or SSD, only the occupied memory areas on the hard drive or SSD are marked as available again and the entry for the file from the «contents list» is deleted.
Also When formatting From partitions The data is retained on the data carriersince only a structure for the filesystem and the file assignment table is created. One Deletion against occupied memory areas by overwriting does not take place when formatting.
2. Easy restoration of deleted files
Our article deleted files with Recuva quickly and easily restores how simple deleted files can already be restored with freeware – this is how it works!
Paid programs such as Wondershare Recoverit Pro also offer more options to restore deleted files with a time -consuming depth scan.
3. Instructions: Delete a hard drive securely
Conventional, magnetic hard drives can basically be easily deleted. There are numerous, free tools such as the Secure Eraser, with which you can safely delete individual files, partitions or entire hard drives.
For this purpose, the sectors on the hard disk documented by the files are overwritten according to various methods and the content is also irretrievably deleted.
Would you like the Delete boot hard driveyou need programs like Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban) Start from a CD or USB stick and thus delete the hard drive. In our article «Make PC Platt: Delete data safe and completely», we have described the handling of the program in detail.
3.1. There are various safe soldering dogs for hard drives
There are different methods such as Data on hard drives can be deleted safely. These differed in the number and values with which the data is overwritten. It remains questionable whether seven runs for deletion, like the VSITS standard, are really needed. The Federal Office of Safety in Information Technology recommends this elaborate method only for very old hard drives (80 GB and less). In a forensics study from 2009, it was already found that the one -time overwriting is sufficient to safely delete data on hard drives.
4. An SSD differs from the structure compared to a hard drive
For a SSD do not work the tips for deleting hard drives. The reason lies in the establishment of an SSD. The electronics in an SSD are careful for a longer lifespan that all memory cells are used evenly.
The “Wear Leveling” therefore distributes the writing accesses according to your own logic on the flash memory cells. Deletion programs for hard drives have no way to determine where storage cells should be overwritten on the SSD. With tools you can overwrite the SSD several times to the border and hope that all the data will really be deleted, but thus restrict the lifespan of the SSD.
The manufacturers of SSDS themselves offer a way out of the misery.
5. Secure erase with tools from the manufacturer
Almost every manufacturer of Solid-State-Drives offers Own tools for managing and configuring the SSD on, for example
With these tools you can display the status of the SSD, update the firmware, carry out a trim or Delete the SSD with Secure Erase. With this function, all of the memory areas on the SSD are really overwritten.
The steps to delete are different from manufacturers to manufacturers. At Samsung, for example, a boot medium is created, with which the SSD can then be deleted safely.
Frozen SSDs: To prevent accidental deletion, some UEFI systems block the Secure Erase and report the drive as «frozen» or «freeze». To delete such a drive, you have to briefly separate the SSD from the electricity and then connect again. You can also put a SATA SSD into a change frame for 2.5-inch hard drives and then separate the drive briefly from the USB and infect it again. These practical frames, which allow the assembly of 2.5-inch hard drives without tools, cost only a few euros.
6. Secure Erase mit Parted Magic
Unfortunately, not all manufacturers offer their own tools for a Secure Erase so that they rely on other solutions. Windows lets SSD users down and offers no way to completely delete an SSD with on-board equipment.
Linux, on the other hand, has been offering suitable commands for a long time to delete an SSD properly and safely. The entry of commands in the Shell from Linux is not for everyone and is also very prone to errors for inexperienced users.
The popular Linux distribution Parted Magic can remedy this here. This is an auxiliary and emergency system that combines many tools around hard drives, data backup, image securing and data recovery under a graphical surface. The tool can also safely delete hard drives and SSD.
Parted Magic is open source, but still cannot be downloaded for free. The download of the current version costs $ 11 and, in our view, is appropriate for the very practical auxiliary tool. But it also works for free. You can also download the last free version of 10.08.2013 on Wintotal and is also part of the Ultimate Boot CD.
6.1. So you can safely delete a hard drive or SSD with Parted Magic
Burn the ISO image of Parted Magic on a CD or create a bootable USB stick via Unetbootin.
Then start the system and boot from the CD or the stick. You may have to change the boot order in the BIOS.
After the start you will find the «Erase Disk» extinguishing function in the Start menu of Parted Magic under «Disk Management».
The old version of 2013 then shows the following window. Choose here Internal -> ATA Secure Erase.
Newer versions show further selections. Choose here Internal Secure Erase.
Then select your SSD here. In the screenshot you can see that the drive is «frozen» so that it cannot be deleted.
Parted Magic can solve the problem very elegantly. Just click on the Sleep button. The system then briefly drives into stand-by mode and then awakens again immediately.
The process becomes «Not Frozen» through the process and can then be deleted.
Click the checkbox in front of the SSD. As a fire -fighting method, choose Secure. Then click on Continue. In a last window you will get another indication that the process should and should no longer be stopped. You then have to agree to the deletion by activating the checkbox in front of «I allow this utility to erase the Listed Device (s)» and then Start Erase click.
This safely deleted the SSD via Ata Secure Erase.
7. Delete the storage space of an SSD or hard drive with a disk part safely
If none of the options presented leads to you, the good old one remains Diskpart Under Windows. With the «Clean All» command, the tool offers a function that overwrites all memory areas on the data carrier with zeros and thus completely deletes the data located there.
The The process is not an ideal solution for an SSD in relation to the service lifehowever, the SSD will cope with this with not too frequent use. However This method also does not offer 100 percent security that all data on the SSD is really deleted. The reason is that SSDS have reserver areas that cannot be overwritten in this way.
Nevertheless, with this method you can delete almost all data on the SSD. Without a special laboratory, normal users should not be able to extract any further data from the SSD.
Start the command line CMD as an administrator and give the command Diskpart a.
With list disk Get all available data carriers displayed on the PC.
Select the SSD or hard drive here, which should be deleted by select disk x Enter (where x stands for the number behind data carriers).
With the command clean all Diskpart now deletes all partitions and overwrites all content on the data carrier with zeros.
Caution: There is no question whether the data should be deleted.
A large part of the data is deleted on an SSD. Only in the «reserved» area can there be fragments that are not deleted by Clean All.
Deleting the system data carrier with a disk part: If you have the primary SSD or hard drive with the operating system over Diskpart want to delete the system via an emergency system such as WindowsPE or system repair data carrier from Windows 10 via DVD or USB stick and use the command via the command line.
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