Quick help! Proper way to format a SSD?

[Oneslowz28]

I heard that there were steps you had to take before formatting a SSD. I am reviewing one right now and need to format it so I can ship it back to its manufacturer tomorrow.

[x88x]

It might depend on the manufacturer. I know that OCZ has a special utility for wiping their SSDs. I'm not really sure what it does though; maybe goes through and only zero's the bits that have been used? You're correct though, that it is best not to use normal wiping methods, as they will eat into the limited write cycles of the SSD.

[mDust]

Normally when a HDD is formatted, nothing is written or erased from the disk...this is why they say to physically destroy HDDs before throwing it away, so thieves can't get anything from it. A 'quick' format in Windows should work just fine. All it does is mark the bits as 'free', so the OS knows it can write something there. If you don't select the quick option, it might write zeros across the drive. I'm not really sure. Each bit can be written about a million times though...people always overplay the whole limited lifespan thing. As long as the paging file, disk indexing, prefetch, and defrag are disabled, nobody is going to wear out enough bits to substantially decrease the total memory of the drive. Either way, so what if it writes zeros across it as its not your drive anyway. The company is probably going to trash it or use it internally.

However, if the manufacturer does supply its own tool for this, then use that.

[mtekk]

If you are reformatting an SSD you should do a "secure erase" using something like http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml (IIRC, it's what Anand from Anandtech.com uses). Other than that, use a vendor specific tool, if one exists for your drive.

[Oneslowz28]

Thanks guys the only software they include with the disc is Acronis True image.

[blueonblack]

Since they are making you send it back, I vote for the patented BoB Three Pound Hammer method. Guaranteed to wipe any data that may be on it. (The Drill Press method works well also, though not as satisfying.)

[msmrx57]

lol

[mtekk]

I'd go with what anand uses then :)

Otherwise, a microwave will take care of it, just remove the metal cover first (so it doesn't shield the insides :) ) :whistler:

[simon275]

Just use gparted or boot and nuke.