Wiping a drive is similar to format, just, with drive wiping any sector of the already structured drive will be overwritten and empty spaces are filled with zeros', just the structure (done by low level formatting, will be kept intact and Track Zero will not be touched. In Low-Level Format, the structure will be overwritten and filled, and restructured, include Track Zero. Drive forensic is able to even recover data from a wiped drive, but from a Low-Level Formatted drive! That simply means, hackers, who have the knowledge, could get 'old' data out from a wiped drive, and some really intelligent Root-Kits, could avoid the wiping of 'their' space, still be intact. Later could maybe also be done by some intelligent Maleware etc., etc.! That said, if you really like to get the drive in vergin state, Low Level Format is the way to go. Personally I use that all times, even on SSDs'! And I really don't mind what others on this forum telling, who claiming to have the required knowledge of a....... and know it better! in quite some years of using, Low-Lewvel formatting never failed, except on physically damaged HDDs'! You don 't need to believe me, you could simp[ly contact the Support at HDD-Guru with your maybe need question! Good luck.
"So entering a Admin CMD Prompt on installation and using diskpart is the best option." Checked it, looks nice, but... The disc I need to format is the live disc where the OS is installed. Does not really sound logical to me, that it can wipe itself completely? Am I wrong?
For hour to install W7 on SSD seemed a reference to being slow. Probably wasn't what you intended but... No bios involved in the process (other than its normal function) Just simple plain commands issued trough an admin consolle Diskpart has nothing to do with "wiping", it removes and creates partitions, same as fdisk on dos and linux. Anyway you can remove any partition from the setup UI (if you boot from the ISO), I can't see why use the command line if you only need to remove a partition or two.
If you've booted the windows setup through usb or dvd then your "live" in winpe. You are free to wipe/partition/format whatever on any of your drives. You have not booted from your ssd. You should have tried it in the 1st 10 minutes days ago. What are you wasting so much time on??? Even if you don't clean/wipe your drive, windows setup will let you format your os partition anyway...
TO ThomasMann If nothing of that SW didn't help you can have virus in MBR part of SSD , and I'm not sure if this programs are rewriting new mbr or not but if I have something like that on my pc I would Kill it and Kill it once again probably you will need 2. pc or machine to wipe all from SSD. I would first try rewrite new MBR and then make new partition and align all 4k because of speed of SSD. Bootice can do allot but not formatting live "memory" if is not option of 2. machine Live XP usb and then bootice ?
Thanks, my thoughts also, problem is that an SSD cannot be connected to my laptop to be erased. I guess my best optionis to try g-parted from a Rufus USB stick, but I remember trying something like that a year or two ago, and the installation simply could not be unfrozen, no matter how many attempts. What is not clear to me is: Installing Win 7 Ulti Sp1 from my DVD, will that format the whole SSD before install begins, do I get to choose to do that?
Nope windows instalation will delete and format ONLY partitions if you have virus that is in mbr that will not work, happen to me with some modified Nesta a b virus that delete all files from hdd (same thing but for hdd you can use boot option like nuke or any deep wipe sw, for ssd that will maybe??? work but I would not try that with that sw. Try with DLC bootable USB pendrive download DLC and unpack it run on some windows then you have option make USB bootable on right top corner, download bootice x86 portable and put on USB pendrive, when you boot Dlc you have allot of programs for hdd new 2016 version have I think so even for ssd see that if not any run xp little and run bootice ( please use bootice with caution ⚠!!! If you don't write mbr for Windows nt 6.x w7 will not find that disc, format as ntfs and set partition active... After that install new windows.... Other option put w7 instalation disk go repair or some option where you get command shell (find on net exactly how go to shell when installing w7,currently is not on my mind) after you get shell type: bootsec /nt60 c:/force /mbr To repair boot Type: bcdboot c:\windows /s c: Rest you know... reboot and install new w7
TO LatinMcG Yes diskpart can do the job. works but command clean will only write new mbr and delete partitions. SO I have customer that have crypto trojan on PC and I check if just command clean will do but it does not virus was still present after and somehow activate himself. Only how will be wiped Everything when using diskpart is SHift F10 and type diskpart then select disk # then type Clean all diskpart will only give blinking underscore but he is working his job. RUFF time to wipe 1 Tb HDD disk 3 Hours, 120 gb SSD 13 minutes, 250gb SSD 30 minutes After little thinking Disk part is very good tool for secure wipe of all data on both hdd and ssd. off course it is not recommended do that allot on ssd as he have limited write/read cycles.
Thanks for everybody's help, but I think we are getting a bit away from my actual problem... The SSD that needs to have low level formatting is the disc with the active OS on it, so, I need bootable USB stick, or maybe a dvd, that will do this, so that I can re-install Win 7 from my disc. My question came up because I thought this could be done with an acronis disc 'C' copy on a bootable stick, which I had to learn from Acronis afterwards will NOT work... So: It is possible to use Rufus, to make a bootable stick with "HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool" and use it to TOTALLY re-format my SSD, so that right after wiping, I can put the DVD into the dvd-drive an install Win 7 ? Thank you all once more...
Yes you need a bootable media. Just download a Live distro of Manjaro linux, then follow the Arch linux instructions already posted to secure erase your disk.
M8 it's been 20+ days. Post #3 is all you need. "CLEAN" will give it a quick wipe, removing all partitions leaving it blank. "CLEAN ALL" will wipe the entire drive. You don't need any other media except for your win7 install dvd/media...