Top 2 Ways for Samsung SSD Secure Erase – Unrecoverable
User case
Need Samsung SSD secure erase utility
I'm swapping out a Samsung 840 SSD and want to erase it. I tried to use the utility that Samsung Disk Magician installs to a bootable USB or CD. It locks up on the "Scanning for drives" phase - possibly because my drives are attached to a SIIG add-in card and not to the motherboard's SATA connectors. Is there a utility I can use to erase a Samsung SSD safely when the Samsung utility doesn't work?
- Question from tom's HARDWARE
Secure erase is a safe way to reset your SSD to the factory default performance and all the data can never be recovered even with most data recovery services. Secure erase is different from drive formatting. In a format task, you simply delete blocks of data, but you can recover files if you go through a professional data recovery tool. However, in a secure erase, you completely overwrite the data blocks by multiple times and the data will never be recovered. Simply put, you will reset your Samsung SSD to its factory state.
If you don't know what tool you will rely on to securely erase your Samsung SSD, you will find the answer in this article. Make a wiped SSD unrecoverable permanently with the methods provided in this article. Now, let's get started!
How to secure erase Samsung SSD in 2 easy ways
To finish the task of secure erase SSD of Samsung brand, you are capable to grab 2 secure and simple methods in the following section. The 2 options are: Samsung Magician and its best alternative Qiling Disk Master.
Next, you will get a clear understanding of their respective features, pros and cons, and a stepwise guide on how to secure erase Samsung SSD.
📌 Preparations: Before access to the tutorial, there are 2 preparations you need to do before wiping a Samsung SSD.
-» Insert the SSD ready to be erased onto your PC and make sure it can be properly detected.
-» It is highly recommended that you backup important data on SSD before performing a secure erase. This is due to that data on the erased SSD cannot be recovered after the wiping process.
Continue reading to catch the specific steps to secure erase SSD Samsung of each solution.
- Way 1. Use Samsung Magician secure erase
- Way 2. Adopt a reliable disk wipe tool – Qiling Disk Master
Way 1. Use Samsung Magician secure erase
Samsung Magician software was developed by Samsung for its flash drives, which can manage everything for your SSD. Secure Erase is a very useful feature to permanently delete sensitive data, which also cannot be recovered with recovery software as it can rewrite this data many times.
Here are the steps to perform Samsung SSD secure erase:
1. Download the Samsung Magician software from its website. Connect an empty USB drive with suggested 8GB size to your computer.
2. Open Samsung Magician and click the Secure Erase tab from the left side of the homepage.
3. Click Select a Drive to choose the SSD you want to erase. You'll need to create a bootable USB drive to allow the utility to work.
4. Confirm your settings and then click START.
5. After the bootable media is created, click OK in the next dialog and the system will restart in the BIOS/UEFI menu. If the system doesn't restart, go to the BIOS menu manually.
6. Inside the BIOS/UEFI menu, change the boot drive and select the bootable USB you created in the last step.
7. Then you will be asked to type "Y" or "N" to go further or back. Just give the "Y" command and hit Enter.
8. Once secure erase is done, you will press any key to restart your computer and you will go to the BIOS again. Make sure to change the boot mode to UEFI if you have changed it earlier in the last steps. Save changes and your system will restart.
According to Samsung, the Samsung Magician software is not compatible with SSDs and HDDs from other manufacturers. Therefore, you can't use certain features, especially if your drive is from another brand, such as Western Digital, Seagate, Crucial, etc.
Way 2. Adopt a reliable disk wipe tool – Qiling Disk Master
If you consider Samsung has some limitations, a little bit troublesome or difficult to operate, you can choose a simple and reliable SSD wipe tool – Qiling Disk Master Professional. Compared to Samsung Magician, it offers more flexible features as follows.
✨ It can meet your various needs by not only supporting wiping disks but also partitions and unallocated space.
✨ In addition to SSDs, you are allowed to wipe external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards or you can also wipe free space on Windows 11.
✨ You can use it to wipe many SSD types like SATA, NVMe, PCIe, M.2, U.2, etc. and different SSD brands such as Samsung, Crucial, Intel, Western Digital, Integral, etc.
✨ It is a comprehensive data protection tool that works on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP. If you are using server systems, please try Qiling Disk Master Server.
Now follow the step-by-step guide to wipe a Samsung SSD using Qiling Disk Master Professional edition with just a few clicks.
Step 1. Download this disk wipe tool, install and launch it. Click Tools in the left tab, and then select the Disk Wipe tool.
Step 2. Select the connected Samsung SSD.
Step 3. Choose the wiping method you want. Click Proceed to execute this process.
♨ It includes 4 options in total to wipe Samsung SSD securely. Note that safer wiping methods come with more passes and lower wiping speed.
✄ Fill sectors with Zero (Safe, Quick)
✄ Fill sectors with random data (Safe, Quick)
✄ DoD 52220.22-M (Very safe, Slow)
✄ Gutmann (35 passes, Very Safe, Very Slow)
Tip: This feature does not support dynamic disk erase currently.
Summary
Now you know how to perform Samsung SSD secure erase from this article. Here are two options for you: Samsung Magician Secure Erase feature and Qiling Disk Master Disk Wipe. If you own a Samsung SSD, Samsung Magician software can meet your basic needs to manage your disk. But Qiling Disk Master gives you more practical features to protect and manage your data without the limitations of SSD brands and types.
Besides, its free Backup and Restore feature can backup your data stored on SSDs and allows you to restore when needed. Moreover, it integrates other powerful features such as Create Bootable Media, which allows you to burn Windows 11 ISO to USB. You will not regret trying to use it as your long-term data protection solution!
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