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Will using SDelete function on windows 10 with -c command clear data on SSD (not HDD) disks?

Thank you in advance.

Claude
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    Does this answer your question? [How to securely delete files stored on a SSD?](https://superuser.com/questions/22238/how-to-securely-delete-files-stored-on-a-ssd) – Moab Oct 25 '20 at 15:39

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SDelete does know the difference. It simply overwrites the file which works on HDD, SSD, NVMe, USB, etc.

From the Microsoft docs:

Securely deleting a file that has no special attributes is relatively straight-forward: the secure delete program simply overwrites the file with the secure delete pattern.

There are some tricky aspect dues to compression but these are universal across devices as well. Once the file has been overwritten in its entire length, then it gets deleted which is why the original data can't be restored.

Itai
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  • so what do you think then n8te is Sdelete reliable in this case? – Claude Oct 25 '20 at 05:06
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    Actually, no. It's not effective with SSDs. See: https://www.howtogeek.com/234683/why-you-cant-securely-delete-a-file-and-what-to-do-instead/ – n8te Oct 25 '20 at 05:15
  • The same is true of HDD then by their logic. The file content could have been moved and old blocks containing its data can still be around. Overwriting the data is still an effective first line defense and SSDs have a feature that discard blocks regularly, so unless you SDelete and shutdown the disk immediately, you will get benefits. – Itai Oct 25 '20 at 17:13
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Every piece of deleted information on SSD will be lost forever very quickly because of flash memory data movement that runs automatically to equalise data cell usage. This is done to maximize SSD life span. You don't have to rewrite like you would have to do with HDD. Just use the SSD and the deleted data will be gone forever.

Zoran Jankov
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    This is true, but doesn't address the situation where you sanitize media and then immediately sell it, or return to manufacturer for support. _Don't trust_ the next person with _your (or your company's) data._ – msanford Feb 22 '23 at 18:40