[SOLVED] Secure Erase M.2 SSD on Lenovo IdeaPad L340-17IRH Gaming

[ElFred]

I want to sell the mentioned laptop, but before I do I would wipe its original SSD drive clean and reinstall Windows on it.

I found that some Lenovo (including IdeaPad) laptops have a Secure Erase option in the UEFI settings, but this specific model does not seem to contain that option. At least after extensively going through the settings, I could not find any option for it. The only SSD-related option was to set a password for the hard drive, but that is not what I need.

Would anyone have an idea where this option would be hidden for the L340? Or are there alternatives to clean this drive?

I tried upgrading the BIOS, in the hope an upgraded version would contain the option, but mine is up-to-date already...

 

[SkyNetRising]

SSD manufacturers usually have a specific software tool for SSD secure erase.
Find model/manufacturer name of your SSD.
Download and use manufacturer specific tool.

 

[ElFred]

@SkyNetRising The SSD is a SAMSUNG MZVLB512HBJQ-000L2, but Samsung's support pages haven't been any help. I tried their "Magician" tool, but that one says the drive is not supported. Hence I was looking for the option in the BIOS / UEFI, also with no luck.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Magician doesn't support OEM drives (even if they are manufactured by Samsung).

Parted Magic supports secure erase. Unfortunately it isn't free.

Private Site

 

[ElFred]

Yes, it's horribly hard to find free alternatives that actually work, so I think I will purchase the Parted Magic software to do the trick. I am disappointed the UEFI does not support Secure Erase for this model, as may other Lenovo models have the option 🙁

 

[Jacozeelie]

Do a windows reset an select delete all files. It does a wipe and clean install of windows

 

[ElFred]

Do a windows reset an select delete all files. It does a wipe and clean install of windows

How "secure" is this erase?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Theoretically -if you do diskpart clean and after that perform trim on ssd, any data should be unrecoverable.
Haven't tested this personally though.

 

[Jacozeelie]

Did you have sensitive data on the disk, if not, your good. If you had, you will need to remove the storage and do a full format on a defrint system before doing a windows install.

 

[USAFRet]

As above, the diskpart function and the clean command.
Followed by a Windows reinstall.

Nothing of 'you' will be left.

 

[USAFRet]

Also, be sure you remove this laptop from your MS account.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...xbox-one-78ee8071-c8ab-40c4-1d89-f708582062e4