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I have two SSDs in my laptop (dell xps 15 9550):

  1. Toshiba 256gb (PCIe) THNSN5256GPU7
  2. Samsung 1tb (sata 3) EVO860

Both are fully encrypted with VeraCrypt.

Is it safe, to simply make a quick-format on both disks and install windows on one of them ? or maybe I do have to do an extra operation like f.e. "removing vera crypt keys" first ?

user3529850
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1 Answers1

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First of all, most of the suggested answers are out-of-date, just like @tetsujin said.

Having said that, I will answer my question for future readers.

  1. If you use windows with bitlocker and your computer has TPM:

    1. All that should be necessary is to encrypt the drive and wipe TPM (ctrl+r -> tpm.msc -> Clear TPM). TPM is a chip on the motherboard that bitlocker uses to store encryption keys.
    2. If you're really paranoid, after clearing the TPM you could boot a Ubuntu live CD and use hdparm to do an ATA secure erase on the SSD.
    3. Instead of hdparm, you can just run blkdiscard /dev/sda - that'll TRIM the whole drive (so don't ever try that on an SSD that has data you care about).

  2. If you use VeraCrypt

    1. Encrypt the entire drive
    2. Wipe the disk (just like suggested by @tetsujin) using f.e. diskpart or by doing what was said in 1.2 or 1.3

Note1: VeraCrypt does not use TPM, so no need to clean it, in the 2 case
Note2: Sometimes SSD manufacturers release tools/utilities that allow to do "Secure Erase", you might use it to wipe your disk if this is the case for you

user3529850
  • 121