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Due to features like wear-leveling and over-provisioning, it is well acknowledged that writing patterns to an SSD cannot safely clean it. Instead, the ATA Secure Erase firmware instructions are the most secure way to wipe a contemporary SSD.

Permanently Erase data from NVMe SSD

NVMe SSDs, on the other hand, don't appear to be ATA-based; rather, they connect to and operate via the PCIe bus, thus from what we gather, this doesn't seem to apply to them. This seems to be confirmed by looking at the Parted Magic tool, which provides a safe wipe option specifically for NVMe drives:

Permanently Erase data from NVMe SSD

One of the greatest PC improvements you can make is a solid-state drive (SSD). Large-capacity SSDs are now more affordable than ever before, whereas previously an SSD required a trade-off between disk space, cost, and speed improvement.

A challenge arises if you wish to wipe the solid-state drive clean because, like other forms of flash memory, an SSD has a limited number of writes that may be made to it. The SSD's lifespan might be decreased by damage caused by using a normal tool.

Do SSDs Get Damaged by Secure Erase?

Generally speaking, your solid-state drive shouldn't require any maintenance. SSDs are made with self-sufficiency in mind, and the manufacturer implements a number of algorithms and fail-safes to extend drive life and guarantee that data is properly deleted.

SSD Wear Leveling: What Is It?

Wear leveling, which is intended to equally disperse stored data between SSD blocks to guarantee even wear, is the first method of defense. One of the key distinctions between a solid-state drive and a conventional magnetic hard disk is wear leveling.

On magnetic platters, files are physically kept on a conventional hard disk. The file locations in a file system are indexed by the operating system, and a mechanical arm is used to retrieve the data. A solid-state drive, on the other hand, is a type of flash memory similar to a USB thumb drive but with a considerably bigger capacity.

While the SSD reshuffles the data to achieve even wear across all memory blocks, it also employs a file system to convey the locations of data storage to the host system. alterations applied to a separate file map for wear leveling records.

In other words, SSDs don't use any physically indexable places, therefore software can't target certain disk sectors. In essence, your computer is unable to determine "where" the information was duplicated.

Why Would You Want to Use SSD Trim?

To ensure that all blocks wear at the same rate and to comply with wear leveling, your SSD regularly shifts data around. That does, however, imply that several widely used secure file deletion techniques don't function as expected. Certainly not in the way they operate on a magnetic hard disk.

Solid-state drives employ the TRIM command specifically to keep track of file destruction. The TRIM command flags the data blocks that the SSD is no longer using and makes them available for internal erasing. In plain English, this indicates that the TRIM command clears the space and makes it useful when you delete a file from your operating system.

Your operating system can instantly attempt to write anything to that area the following time. Simply simply, your SSD handles the data you delete.

Regular secure disk wiping applications are not advised for an SSD due to the differences in how an SSD manages data erasure and wear leveling. You will finally write 1s and 0s to the disk, but in the process, the drive memory will suffer significantly.

Only the drive is aware of the location of this data since it writes every fresh incoming data to different blocks according on its requirements. Therefore, safe deletion programs actually damage SSDs by adding extra writes that are not essential.

How to Delete An NVMe SSD Securely?

You're undoubtedly asking yourself right now, "How can I safely clean my SSD, then?" Fortunately, you may still safely clean your SSD using software without harming the disk. The distinction is that an SSD "resets" to a clean memory state (not factory state, which implies there is no disk wear!) instead of safely deleting all data off the drive.

The "ATA Secure Erase" command directs the drive to flush all electrons, which makes the drive "forget" any data it has previously saved. The command sets the status of all accessible blocks to "erase" (which is also the state the TRIM command uses for file deletion and block recycling purposes).

With the Sanitize hardware features of your NVME SSD, you can securely wipe NVME SSDs. The controller memory buffers, non-volatile media, caches, and user data are all deleted by the NVME SSD's Sanitize functionality. Therefore, nothing is ever recoverable in any form.

The majority of manufacturers include software with their SSDs. Typically, the program comes with a disk cloning option, a secure wipe tool, and a firmware update tool.

An Easy Way to Wipe NVMe SSD Data

If you want an easy way to wipe data from NVMe SSD, DoYourData Super Eraser is a good choice. It offers certified data erasure standards to help you securely and permanently erase data from NVMe SSD without causing any damage.

DoYourData Super Eraser

  • Three flexible data erasure modes.
  • Once the data is erased by DoYourData Super Eraser, the data is lost forever.
  • Erase NVMe SSD on both Windows and Mac OS.
  • 100% safe, no damage, will not shorten the service life of the NVMe SSD.

Please note that once your data is erased by DoYourData Super Eraser, the data will be gone forever, can’t be recovered by any data recovery software. You’d better make a backup before you erase your NVMe SSD.

This data erasure software is pretty simple to use. It offers three data erasure modes to meed various data erasure needs.

Mode 1. Erase Files - shred files on NVMe SSD.

If you only want to permanently erase some special files or folders from your NVMe SSD, just select this mode. Click Add to add files/folders to the erasure list and click on Erase Now button to securely and permanently erase the selected files/folders from the NVMe SSD.

Wipe NVMe SSD Data

Mode 2. Wipe Hard Drive - permanently wipe all data from the NVMe SSD.

Select the NVMe SSD and click on Wipe Now button to securely and permanently wipe all data including existing data, deleted/lost data from the NVMe SSD.

Wipe NVMe SSD Data

Mode 3. Wipe Free Space - erase deleted data from the NVMe SSD.

How to permanently erase deleted data without affecting the existing data on the NVMe SSD? Just choose Wipe Free Space mode. It will wipe free disk space of the NVMe SSD and permanently erase all deleted/lost data from the NVMe SSD. It will not erase the existing data on the NVMe SSD.

Wipe NVMe SSD Data

DoYourData Super Eraser also can help you repair damaged NVMe SSD. Just select Disk Repair tool to help you quickly fix logical errors on NVMe SSD.

DoYourData Author

Written & Updated by Shirly Chen

Shirly Chen has been writing data recovery, data erasure articles for DoYourData over 4 years. She has been working as a professional website content writer & editor for quite a long time. She also writes articles about disk clone, Mac optimization, disk backup, etc.

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