How to Securely Erase or Wipe SSD in Windows 11/10

On this page, you'll learn how to effectively wipe SSD on Windows 11/10/8/7 on your own:

When Do You Need to Wipe an SSD
How to Secure Erase/Wipe SSD in Windows 11/10: #1st. Download SSD Secure Erase Tool to Wipe SSD; #2nd. Wipe and Erase SSD in Windows 11/10

What Is Secure Erase

Secure Erase is a method used to completely wipe out the data on a hard drive using a set of commands. Secure Erase commands write binary one or zero to the sectors on the hard drive to overwrite all the existing files. That's why the data removed by the Secure Erase commands is not recoverable by any data recovery method available.

However, although they are commands. You cannot run Secure Erase commands like you run commands in Windows 11/10 in Command Prompt since they are available from the firmware on the hard drive. Thus, to secure erase your SSD in Windows 11/10, you need third-party software like Qiling disk wipe software to help you execute these operations.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

When Do You Need to Wipe an SSD

When do you need to perform a secure erase on an SSD? Completely wiping an SSD is needed when you want to:

Resell the SSD: One of the preparations you need to make before reselling a storage device like SSD is to wipe out all the data on it, which prevents others from accessing your files.
Prepare the SSD for another user: To protect your information, you may want to destroy the files on the storage device.
Clean up SSD for other usages: To clear SSD for OS installation, using it as a game drive, or a second data disk, etc.
Remove virus or malware on the device: If your SSD is infected by a virus or malware, you may want to totally remove it by secure erase your device.

How to Wipe SSD in Windows 11/10

Follow through the process in this part, you'll securely erase SSD and make it ready for any purpose as listed above:

#1st. Download SSD Secure Erase Tool to Wipe SSD
#2nd. Wipe and Erase SSD in Windows 11/10

We suggest you follow the tutorials one by one as presented in this part. If you don't have essential data saved on your SSD, skip the 1st guide and start from the 2nd guide.

 Notice:: It's necessary to stress that before you wipe SSD, you need to back up your files if these files are still useful as you cannot recover your data after secure-erase.; For an effective way to make a backup, free backup software - Qiling Backup can help you out.

#1st. Download SSD Secure Erase Tool to Wipe SSD on Windows 11/10

Professional partition tool - Qiling BitWiper will help you securely erase and wipe an SSD in Windows 11/10, fully clean up SSD, making data unrecoverable with ease. This disk/partition management tool has a feature named "Wipe Data", which works almost the same with Secure Erase commands.

"Wipe Data" vs Secure Erase Commands

Both the "Wipe Data" feature and the Secure Erase command erase your data by overwriting all the data on your SSD. However, Wipe Data feature in Qiling BitWiper exceeds the Secure Erase command:

Secure Erase writes binary 1 or 0 to the disk sectors while "Wipe Data" writes random numbers.
Wipe Data doesn't damage the SSD, while the Secure Erase command will.
Wipe Data in Qiling BitWiper is easier than Secure Erase, which is especially friendly to beginners.

Get the software to wipe your SSD in Windows 11/10 right now:

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

#2nd. Simple Steps to Wipe an SSD in Windows 11/10

These operations cannot be undone after applying the changes. Once again, if you have valuable data saved on SSD, back up them at first.

Step 1. Run Qiling BitWiper. Click the "Wipe Disk" in tools page.

Step 2. Select the targeted HDD or SSD to wipe.

Notice: Please make sure you have chosen the correct HDD or SSD. Once the wiping starts, your data is irrecoverable.

Step 3. Choose Wiping Method. Click "Proceed" to continue.

Choose a suitable wiping method. Recommend Qiling Secure Erase!

Step 4. Check the warning message and click "OK" to confirm.

Be careful that once the process is carried out by Qiling BitWiper, the data will become unrecoverable with any data recovery software or service! Wait for the process to complete and then you can use the wiped SSD as a new disk for installing a new OS, games, or sell it online.

You may also be interested in: How to Install a New HDD/SSD on Windows 11/10/8/7.

The Bottom Line

People might want to wipe or erase an SSD drive for various reasons. Erasing an SSD (solid-state drive) can sanitize the drive. So you can make sure that the virus or malware will no longer hide somewhere in the drive.

Besides, wiping an SSD helps to recover lost performance on systems with inefficient garbage collection. But unlike a traditional hard drive disk (HDD), there are not so many tools that can wipe SSD drive. Here to save your time and efforts, we recommend you to try Qiling disk wipe software, a secure erase utility that does work with SSD drives.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

People Also Ask About Secure Erase SSD

You can securely and completely wipe your SSD in Windows 11/10 to erase all the content, including personal data, viruses, or malware using Qiling BitWiper. If you have further questions related to secure erase SSD, check the questions and answers below, you will get a satisfying answer.

1. Does Secure Erase damage SSD?

As explained on this page, Secure Erase is a process that runs commands from the firmware to wipe disk data, writing binary one or zero to the hard drive at a sector level.

This will make data unrecoverable on SSD, which may also do some damage to the disk while writing the 0 and 1. To protect your SSD, we suggest you try a third-party disk wiping tool like Qiling BitWiper for help.

2. How do I avoid data loss due to securely wipe an SSD?

As we recommend, to avoid data loss while wiping an SSD, it's necessary that you back up all essential data to another device in advance. You may try Qiling Backup to create a backup image of your SSD data with the following steps:

Step 1. Click "File backup" in "Backup and recovery" page to initiate a backup.

Step 2. Local and network files will be displayed on the top side. You may extend the directory to choose which files to back up.

Step 3. Select the location where you want to store the backup by following the on-screen instructions.

Click "Options" to encrypt the backup with a password in "Backup Options," and to setup a backup schedule and choose to initiate a backup at a certain event in "Backup Scheme." There are a variety of other customization options available for the backup process.

Step 4. You may save the backup to a local disk, Qiling' online service, or a NAS.

Step 5. To begin backup, click "Proceed" Once the backup process has been finished, it will be shown as a card on the panel's left side. To further manage a backup job, right-click it.

To securely wipe an SSD and make the disk clean, you'll need a professional disk wiping tool for help. As recommended on this page, Qiling BitWiper is able to help.

3. How do I secure erase Samsung SSD?

To erase Samsung SSD, you may revert to the steps above to complete the process. Or you can follow the quick guide here to get jobs done:

#1. Back up useful data on Samsung SSD to another device.

#2. Download a reliable wipe tool to secure erase Samsung SSD.

Here you can try Qiling BitWiper, or other wipe tools like Samsung Magician SSD Tool, SanDisk SSD Dashboard, etc.

#3. Securely erase and wipe Samsung SSD with the selected wipe tool.