I m selling my Dell xps. I want to erase my nvme drive, and be reasonably sure no data can be sifted from it. The drive is nvme. Sanitize command, (read about it here,) sounds closest to what I am after. Are there other methods do do this?
have no idea what military/gov uses (bleach bit?) but if it was me:
- live disk, then refromat with gparted
2)live disk, thenDDto zero it out
For securely erasing an NVME drive, install nvme-cli and follow the instructions at:
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At one time DBAN was a pretty common suggestion.
Boot the iso > nuke everything.
But DBAN is a bit old and does not even seem to support SSDs.
I’ve also seen some suggestions for ‘shredos’ though I have not used it.
But you should also be able to do this from just about any functional Live ISO.
You could use dd to overwrite the data, use the utilities in other graphical tools like gparted, and so on. Specifically for NVMEs the nvme tools from package nvme-cli would be the most pertinent (I do not know of graphical frontends if they exist).
The following steps would be roughly accurate no matter your chosen ISO.
https://github.com/PartialVolume/shredos.x86_64?tab=readme-ov-file#wipe-nvme
Yes, if your drive supports sanitize, that is what you want.
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None of those methods will work fully on an nvme drive. It is difficult to properly erase and SSD without using the firmware of the device. The underlying data isn’t fully exposed to the OS.
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Drives are relatively cheap for a new buyer. Physically destroy the nvme drive (pliers and/or a hammer work well).
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Maybe I was not clear enough.
I referenced DBAN mostly for historical purposes.
shredos seems to provide the required utilities.
And, as mentioned, many Live ISOs would also provide tools pertinent to NVMEs.
Or move it to an enclosure that you’re keeping…it is still usable after all.
usually a 3/4" steel drillbit at 3 points in the platter for HDDs. I don’t bother saving those unless perfect.
Sorry OP, I digress
I tried to download nvme-cli. I get errors when I try to dl nvme-cli from arch repository.
“The requested URL returned error: 404”
Update your system first.
It does have that utility but that would be some serious overkill to get the nvme cli.
That being said, I was more trying to make it clear that dban, dd and any traditional disk wiper won’t work.
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That s probably it 
haven t done it in a while.
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That s what I read also.
Hehe, Try buying a new Dell nvme drive.
I doubt Dell makes their own nvme drives. Any standards compliant device will work.
It s finding out what is compliant. That s the thing. I went through it buying ram, and a nvme drive in the past. I do not want to go through that again. I just buy dell, and it works. Maybe it s their business model…
As a side note, it is good to see you around here.
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Sell without the drive, drill your drive.
Cleaning a drive based on flash memory is almost impossible with the usual tools. IT forensics are magicians.
Btw: Every nvme drive will work in the XPS if it has the same specs bus wise. Either it’s PCIe 3 or 4. Buy a suitable replacement, I would suggest one of Samsung, sell with the clean drive, be happy.