Reformat SSD by inserting windows disc

[Parliam3nt]

So I only have one hard drive in my computer and its a SSD and I want to completely reformat and reinstall windows and start new. Can I just insert the windows disc and do it that way?? I've read things like 'do a secure reformat' and all that but is that necessary for my situation?


Thanks in advance!

 

[cmichael138]

Yes. Just install the disk and format as part of the new OS installation. No security issues since you're just installing on your own system.

 

[WyomingKnott]

The reason for doing a "secure erase" is that it effectively does a TRIM command on the whole drive. Otherwise, after a format and reinstall, blocks that were in use before the install will still be used as far as the SSDs garbage collection algorithms know.

It's a bit perfectionistic, but you can do a Secure Erase by downloading Parted Magic and building a CD. Boot from the CD, and it's in tools. You probably won't see a difference between doing it and not doing it. But it seems "technically correct" to mark all of the pages empty when you are going to reformat the drive.