How to erase Samsung SSD when Samsung utility fails

[douglasl]

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. In any case...

Is there a utility I can use to erase a Samsung SSD safely when the Samsung utility doesn't work?

Thank you!

-Doug

 

[digitaldoc]

Right click on the drive in Windows, select "Format," and go with the "Complete Format" option.


SEE BELOW- the correct answer is to use the "Quick Format."

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, Doug!

In case @digitaldoc's suggestion is not working and you cannot format the SSD through Windows, I'd recommend you to take a look at this article on how to securely erase it using some third-party utilities: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-securely-erase-an-ssd-drive/

Hope it works. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[mad-max79]

Just create secure erase thumb drive and connect to onboard controller for this task. Maybe a boot able ISO like parted magic can do the job.
Old versions were free of charge.

 

[dr-claw]

Right click on the drive in Windows, select "Format," and go with the "Complete Format" option.

Are you sure that's a good idea? As far as I know, the performance of an SSD gets worse the more write operations you perform on it. SSDs have a built-in "security erase" feature that performs this task and also "recovers lost performance on systems with inefficient garbage collection" according to http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-securely-erase-an-ssd-drive/ . Or is the Windows "Complete Format" feature aware of security erase and will it use that instead of writing all zeros to every block of the drive?

Anyway, be careful whatever you do. I actually managed to kill a motherboard trying to security erase one of my SSDs, likely by unplugging and plugging back in the SATA and power cables on the drive while the OS was booted.

 

[digitaldoc]

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/storage/3588491/how-format-ssd/

You are correct! I had not thought of this before, but for an SSD, it should be formatted/erased either with the manufacturer's software, or with a Quick Format, not a Complete Format that should only be used on a mechanical HDD.