How do you reformat a SSD

[Gary Childress]

Hi Civfanatic Friends,

I've kind of fallen behind on computers (as I always seem to do after researching and building a machine). I have a couple SSDs with stuff on them that I'd like to completely erase so that I can start again from scratch, install Windows and use on a new machine.. My question is, how do you wipe the memory of a SSD clean?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Zelig]

Same way you would an HDD?

I typically use diskpart: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase-disk-using-diskpart-clean-command-windows-10-a.html

You can do it from Windows (but not to the active disk) or from opening a command prompt to the Windows installer. No need to initialize anything after running the diskpart clean command, Windows is good to install from there.

Doing a secure erase of an SSD typically depends on whether it was encrypted, and which manufacturer/model it is.

 

[Gary Childress]

Much thanks, Zelig. I didn't know about the diskpart clean command. Last time I reformatted a disk it was an HDD and I used the Format command to do it. It's been a while.