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How to Erase SSD? Read the Answer Here

  author
Written By Andrew Jackson
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On September 3rd, 2024
Reading Time 10 Minutes Reading

how do I clear my ssd

                                                 how do I erase my SSD

Users Queries

“Hello friends. I am facing a strange problem for the last few days. While opening my system I keep getting the notification, need to format SSD for Windows. I have no idea why I am getting this message. I got tired of seeing this message each and every time. Seems like I have to wipe my Solid State Drive anyway. But the question is how to erase SSD? I am not aware of any good method. If anyone from this forum know how do i wipe my SSD and aware of any technique, please let me know. Thanks in advance.”

“Being the Chief Executive of Admin section of a hospital, I have been asked to erase SSD disk of our system. Since our department deals with all the sensitive data of the patients, the hospital has to wipe all the patient data annually from the system in order to ensure patient confidentiality. This is the first time I am doing it. Kindly tell me how do i erase my SSD in a foolproof way so that its data become non-retrievable. Thanks.”

. Due to various reasons, users have to clear SSD data. However, most of them are not aware of the process. Therefore, this write-up will discuss the process of securely format SSD. Before that, we will learn what reasons may lead to the need to wipe Solid State Drives.

Table of Contents Hide

Why Do Users Have to Securely Wipe SSD Data

Solid State Drive is an alternative to traditional hard drives used for file storage. There are multiple reasons why an SSD has to be formatted. The main reason could be getting the error message Need to Format. If the SSD has become highly corrupt, the system will ask users to format the drive. Apart from this, users have to wipe the SSD data for compliance issues. In cases of health and finance sectors, SSD drives have to be erased for security reasons after a particular time interval. Legal obligations can also force users to wipe their files locate in an SSD disk drive.

Warning: SSD is not a tradition Hard Disk Drive, and technically you should never have to format your SSD. So, before taking the decision to erase SSD data, make sure that you really have to do it. The Read-Write cycle of an SSD is limited, so it is better not to erase SSD unnecessarily to avoid degrading performance.

#1. How to Erase SSD? By Using Disk Management Tool

Users can take the help of a common manual technique to format their drive. Follow the instructional steps that we are going to add now to perform the SSD erasure.

For Windows 11 

  • Right Click on the Windows Start button of your system and Search Disk management.

disk management

  • open the Disk Management window.
  • Select your SSD disk from the list and right-click on it.
  • From the list of options, select Format.

select format

erase sdd from disk management

erase ssd from disk management


perform quick format

For Windows 10

computer management

open disk management

right click on it

format

performing quick format

#2. How to Wipe an SSD in Windows 10 & 11 – Using “Reset This PC” Feature

In this method, you will know how do i wipe my drive using this inbuilt feature to wipe your SSD drive:

Windows 10

  • Press “Windows + I” to Open the Setting.

Pressing WIndows Key + I to open the Setting on laptop

  • View to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.

update and security

 

click on recovery

  • Here, you will find the section Reset This PC. Under this click on Get Started.

click on get started

  • After that, select Remove Everything to delete all your files and settings.

click on remove everything

click

change setting

toggle on clean

click on next

click on reset

For Windows 11

open setting

click on recovery

click on reset pc

click on remove everything

change setting

toggle on clean

click on next

click on reset

 

#3. How to Erase SSD? Using Diskpart Clean Command

This is the method in which you will be using command prompt to wipe your SSD:

  •  By going on the Windows search bar, search for Command Prompt and Run it as Administrator.

open command prompt

  • Type “Diskpart” and press on Enter.

diskpart

  • Now, type ‘list disk‘ and ‘Select disk X’ and (replace X with the number of your SSD)
  • Press on Enter to see all your disk present there.

type listdisk

  • Now, type Clean and Press Enter.

type clean and press enter.

How to Clear SSD Drive? Benefits

  • When you permanently delete your files, it ensures that your sensitive data cannot be recovered.
  • Using the above manual methods, optimized for SSDs, it ensures that the drive overall performance is not negatively impacted.
  • It helps to properly delete all your data in order to meet regulatory compliance like GDPR, HIPAA etc.
  • It aims and focuses on protecting your data privacy and security to avoid daily scams and frauds.

How to Erase SSD? Limitations

  • After following these manual methods, data is permanently erased. it is important to ensure that you have taken backup of you data before proceedings.
  • Also, some method may require technical knowledge to do the process.
  • It can also reduce the lifespan of an SSD, when you do frequent overwriting of data.

How to Wipe an SSD in Windows 11 & 10 – Using Professional Approach

Users who are simply looking for how to erase SSD drive. So, deleting your files or formatting an SSD is not be enough to securely wipe all your data. To, make sure that your data is irrecoverable, you can use a reliable tool like SysTools Data Wipe Software that all your data is completely erased and are beyond recovery.

Features of Using this Automated Tool of How to Erase SSD

  • It removes all data residue or classified data spills.
  • It cleans up caches, logs, temporary files and other application traces.
  • It generates data destruction reports after the completion of audit trails.
  • It comply with more than 20+ global standards including NIST 800-88, US DoD 5220.22-M and many more.

How to Get Back Data from A Wiped SSD

Sometimes, users are forced to wipe all the data from the SSD and did not have any backup. If they want that how to erase SSD drive to retrieve the files from a formatted SSD drive, they can take the help of SSD Drive Recovery Tool. In order to get back data from an erased SSD, use the Formatted Scan feature of this application. It will restore all the deleted files and allow users to save those files in any chosen location. This program is compatible with both m.2 and NVMe type SSD, so users of both types of SSD can run this utility.

Final Words

Different reasons give rise to situations when users encounter the requirement of erasing data from their SSDs. Since the SSDs are different than HDDs, people feel confused about the process of formatting Solid State Drives. For this reason, how to erase SSD drive is one of the most common queries found in the tech forums these days. In order to solve this problem, this post discussed the simple and easy manual method to perform this formatting. Users can follow these steps and successfully wipe the data from the SSD.

Also Read- Wipe SSD from BIOS?

  author

By Andrew Jackson

I am SQL DBA and SQL Server blogger too. I like to share about SQL Server and the problems related to it as well as their solution and also I do handle database related user queries, server or database maintenance, database management, etc. I love to share my knowledge with SQL Geeks.