Does MSI BIOS Secure Erase properly wipe an SSD before selling it?
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MellowCedar47
I'm planning to sell several SSDs and was about to use a dedicated secure-erasure utility. Then I noticed that my MSI motherboard has a "Secure Erase+" option in its BIOS. Does this perform the same kind of drive-level erase as software tools, and is it sufficient to remove my data? I ran it already, and each drive was cleared within seconds.
Answers
The BIOS feature sends the SSD’s built-in secure-erase command directly to the drive. On modern SSDs, that may work by changing the internal encryption key and making the old data inaccessible, rather than overwriting every flash cell. That’s why it can finish in seconds. It should provide the same practical result as reputable drive utilities that issue the same command.
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The manufacturers’ utilities generally do the same thing, so MSI’s BIOS option should be suitable for preparing an SSD for sale. Older multi-pass overwriting tools were designed for hard drives and are unnecessary for SSDs; they can add wear without improving the result. As a quick check, reconnecting the drives and seeing them appear as entirely unallocated confirms the partitions are gone, though it isn’t itself a cryptographic security test.
MellowCedar47: That matches what I saw: the partitions were removed and each drive showed up as one unallocated section. It’s convenient having the feature built into the motherboard.
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MellowCedar47: I was mainly comparing it with the commonly recommended Secure Erase utilities. Sounds like those generally use the same drive-level command.