Samsung 960 Evo erase or format?

[James G Maker]

I recently replaced my 2 raid 0 volumes with a single Samsung 960 Evo.  it is 500G in size and fills up fast.  The OS and program files are on a separate 850 EVO.  I archive the assets, exports and project files on a 4TB hard drive when I've finished mixing them in PProCS6.  What is the best way to erase the files on the 960EVO?

Delete?

format?

CCleaner drive wipe?

Do any of these operations shorten the life of the SSD?

Thanks

[James G Maker]

still hoping for an answer

[cvid01]

Have you checked this out?: Resources & Utilities | FAQs | Samsung V-NAND SSD

[James G Maker]

I checked it out online.  Still wonder what's the best way to erase, delete or format the 960.  I could be wrong, but wouldn't a secure erase involve multiple rewrites over existing data to render it secure? possibly shortening the life.  Maybe i'm just overthinking it.  If formatting the drive would be preferable, would it be quick format?  Hoping more that use these kind of SSDs wile chime in.

[MyerPj]

Yes, I believe you are correct when you say you might be 'overthinking it'.

SSDs btw run in a TRIM mode, the whole file is erased when a file is deleted. Not like spinning drives where the space is marked as deleted and you can still possibly recover the file. Just erase and proceed...

[Bill_Gehrke]

I would venture a guess that just deleting the file would exercise fewer read write operations which determine to lifetime of the SSD.  One of the things you never want to do is defragment any SSD

[James G Maker]

Thanks for the answers.  For now, I'll just delete and keep crunching videos.  I didn't know about the defrag warning.

[davidj87027226]

Hello James,

Considering you didn’t get any solid solution till now.

You may only go for wiping your 960 Evo with either CCleaner (which you already mention) or with BitRaser, if it is very sensitive data for you. Both of them works with SSD. Once the data is wiped, it will be permanently gone.Keep the backup ready before using these software.

Wiping process shortened the lifespan of SSD's by killing the write cycle on the drive.

[Just Shoot Me]

IIRC Samsung has a system to erase their SSDs.

But the real question is why do you want to Erase, Format, and or go through any other operation to just Delete the files on it. Just Delete and be done with it.

The less writing to the drive the longer it will last.