How do I clean format an SSD when it is the only hard drive from which I can boot?

ssd wipe

585

Solution 1

You can boot Windows PE from a USB drive. If your secure erase utility is on that drive, I'd bet it would work.

This should lead you to the proper information on how to make a Windows PE disk.

Solution 2

You can use a secure erase utility, such as HDD Erase or DBAN, from a boot disc (or USB drive).

585

user2088807

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

user2088807 over 1 year
I have a button with a custom style used in all my application. This style has the following property :
```
<Setter Property="Width" Value="150" />
```
But on a particular page I need to have my button stretched to its parent. I would like this to do something like to "cancel" the 150 width :
```
<Button Style="{StaticResource MyStyle}" Width="*" />
```
How can I achieve this ?
- uxout almost 13 years
  
  Do you really have to do a secure erase? Is there anything that important on there you can't trust him with? A simple format would be sufficient otherwise, which can be done at the time that he's installing whatever-he-intends-to-put-on-it.
- Billy ONeal almost 13 years
  
  @Shinrai: A secure erase wipes all LBAs and sets them to "erased, clean" state on the SSD, restoring the performance the drive had when it was new. A format doesn't do that.
- uxout almost 13 years
  
  What specifically is the drive? Most drives should be taking care of performance degredation as you use them anyway through TRIM or passive garbage collection or similar.
- uxout almost 13 years
  
  Nope, not on Sandforce, you're right. That's why I asked what the drive was. (It'll be hard to say in what kind of bootable environment you can do this in anyway without knowing specifically what drive it is since you'll probably have to use a manufacturer's specific utility!)
- Billy ONeal almost 13 years
  
  @Shinrai: The secure erase command is an ATA standard. You don't need a manufacturer specific anything to use it.
- uxout almost 13 years
  
  I can see where you'd get that impression, but it's generally easier to answer questions correctly and accurately with these sorts of details. (I don't mean to imply anything personal, of course)
- adminSoftDK almost 9 years
  
  If your button has a style, but you then also use width on that button, then the width which comes from that style is ignored. There is nothing esle you need to do.
- Rachel almost 9 years
  
  Sizing an object is usually dependent on the parent panel holding the object. The most a control can influence it without something like rewriting a control template is setting HorizontalAlignment=Stretch
uxout almost 13 years

This is the recommended way to handle this on any Sandforce-based controller, which apparently OP has. +1
Billy ONeal almost 13 years

HDDErase needs an optical drive to work, and doesn't even work on most recent computers. (It's a DOS image and fails on almost all recent hardware -- particularly, every machine I've ever tried to use it, because the DOS image does not support AHCI). DBAN does not issue the secure erase command, it writes random data to the disk (which would make performance worse rather than better).
eran otzap almost 9 years

Yes and you can just set it to Auto like @LPL said , i just thought i'll show you how you can inherit from a style. possibly you would wan't to some trigger to change this value..
user2088807 almost 9 years

Auto will size the button depending on its content, in my case.
LPL almost 9 years

Then remember @Rachels suggestion: combine it with HorizontalAlignment=Stretch
Billy ONeal over 6 years

DBAN does not engage the SECURITY_ERASE feature of the drive though; that is necessary to completely remove data from wear leveling, etc. usually implemented by destroying a drive-local encryption key. KillDisk is probably sufficient for magnetic media but I wouldn't touch it for SSDs.