4.1 Secure Erase Basics

Introduction

There are two kinds of Secure Erase procedure. The first is a quick Secure Erase of a secondary drive, such as when the SSD is the 2nd drive and is connected using either SATA or eSATA. This can take place while Windows is running because it will not affect the OS files. This procedure is described in Section 4.2.

The other procedure is a Secure Erase of the boot drive, which contains the Windows OS. This must be completed with a DOS-bootable USB Drive containing the Samsung SSD Secure Erase Utility. Skip to section 4.3 for information on this process.

The Samsung SSD Secure Erase utility enables users to erase specific Samsung SSDs connected to a PC or Laptop.

The Samsung Secure Erase Utility supports the Samsung SSD 470 Series and SSD 830 Series only and should be used with the Samsung SSD Magician software to minimize user interaction during erasure.

Secure Erase is an unrecoverable operation that permanently deletes all data on a Samsung SSD.

Cautions

1.The DOS-based Samsung Secure Erase Utility supports the Samsung SSD 470 Series and the SSD 830 Series only. If you use another model of Samsung SSD, please check www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor. If you have a computer with a Samsung SSD pre-installed, please contact the manufacturer of your computer.

2.Because a Secure Erase is irreversible, it is highly recommended that users back up (save a copy of) all important data stored on the Samsung SSD to another storage device before executing the

Samsung Secure Erase Utility. Please see the separate “Norton Ghost – Data Backup & Recovery” User Manual for detailed instructions on how to do this with Norton Ghost.

3.The SSD must be connected to the system and supplied with power at all times during the Secure Erase process. If the SSD device cable is disconnected or power is shut down during the Secure Erase

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