I have a lot of SSDs that I need to wipe before I resell them. I wonder if using Diskpart is the best method for this task, but I've noticed that the 'clean all' command takes a long time. On the other hand, formatting through Windows seems to be quite quick, usually taking under 5 seconds, but I'm not convinced it's secure enough.
5 Answers
I have a dedicated machine for disk work, and I usually just zero out the drives with the command `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX`. It takes some time, but it's secure. Just keep in mind there might still be a bit of data left over if the SSD has overprovisioned space.
If you choose to go the Diskpart route, you can list the disks with 'list disk', select the right one with 'select disk 2', and then use 'clean all'. Just remember, it can take a while!
You might want to look into the Secure Erase option that some BIOS have, or check out Parted Magic. They can really speed things up while ensuring the data is properly wiped.
If you have a Dell machine, like a Latitude or OptiPlex, you can easily connect your SSD to it, boot into BIOS, and use the Disk Wipe feature. This will perform a secure erase or sanitize on all connected drives pretty quickly.
Yes, Diskpart is an option, but keep in mind it may not work effectively on NVMe SSDs. The Arch Linux wiki has some helpful info about using hdparm and nvme commands for these drives. Just make sure to check that out!
Great tip! I'll definitely check the wiki for more details.