I want to re-purpose an SSD. Should I quick format or secure erase?

kissenger

kissenger

kissenger

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To cut a long story short, I have a Crucial m500 that has an OS (W7) installed on it and some other stuff, that I want to turn into a drive to store my Steam games on. I've read up on how to do this and I'm getting contradictory information and I trust OCUK to give me the right answer :D

This method -- quick format using W7 Disk Management -- seems like the simplest option:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/storage/3588491/how-format-ssd/

But other sources have said do a secure erase using software taken from the manufacturers website, because that will lead to better performance from the drive than if it's quick formatted. I can't find anything on their website anyway though.
 
quick is ok, delete all the partitions off the disk (windows OS may have created a small partition) then create a new one then, quick format
 
Quick format will be fine.

Use secure erase if you're selling the drive and want to permanently remove all data.
 
I thought that secure erase was meant to put it back closer to 'factory fresh' rather than just quick formatting.

Secure erase does have the caveat of having to boot to DOS/Linux and using some proprietary tool though. I'd imagine in the grand scheme of things it won't make a huge difference. I secure erased my drive using Hiren's Boot CD (from USB) since I had it to hand.
 
Thanks guys. I went for a quick format in the end and it seemed to work fine. I am having one issue though.

Both of the drives had at one point had W7 installed and this used to lead to me being asked which version I wanted to boot after turning my PC on. I thought that would go away after I formatted my m500 but I'm still getting it. When I click on the W7 associated with my main drive I boot fine, but when I click the W7 on the m500 it won't boot (as you would expect), but ideally I would like to get rid of this.

I've set my main drive as the only option in the boot priority menu in BIOS, but that hasn't fixed it. Any ideas?
 
kissenger said:
Thanks guys. I went for a quick format in the end and it seemed to work fine. I am having one issue though.

I've set my main drive as the only option in the boot priority menu in BIOS, but that hasn't fixed it. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

It's because you didn't disconnect the old drive when you installed Windows on the new drive.

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/howto/how-to-remove-an-os-from-windows-dual-boot-config/

or

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/17903/remove-ubuntu-or-xp-from-the-windows-7-boot-menu/
 
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