Windows 10: SSD wont secure erase on USB or DISC

I have recently had a failure of BIOS and backup BIOS on my Gigabyte GA-H77M D3H rev1.0 motherboard, now I've purchased a 2nd hand Intel (branded), 7 series board, to replace it, now in anticipation, I thought I would secure erase the SSD now in prep

now first I attached it using a SATA-to-USB3 converter cable into a 4 way powered port and it picked up and can be browsed, but isn't called SAMSUNG SSD - Micron TECH or something...first I installed the latest edition of SM which again picked it up as TECH as the name of the drive but could NOT do anything with it...so I directly plugged it into the laptop and the result was the same...one can access all files but SM can only see this as a "TECH" drive not Samsung 850 and ALL options a greyed out - now when it first happened I used my secure erase disc which I've used before on the same drive and this time it said the drive was "NOT COMPATIBLE"

so just now I installed version 4.5 of SM as I remember having issues with later versions but the result was the same... it could only benchmark and it benchmarked like and SD Card!!

can anyone tell me how to resolve this and check if the drive is broken? I hope not otherwise im gunna have to pull out more money

i got it in 2013 and on last check 0 problems and EXCELLENT health accord to an SSD reporting tool

mind the testing laptop is very poor 2Gb RAM, 2 core Celeron, 2Gb spare room on the built eMMC from 21Gb - nothing but chrome and office 365 installed - im loaning it until i get my PC fixed or replaced...

any help would be greatly appreciated

:)

 

Securely erasing old SSD - Ubuntu

Very inexperienced with Linux and have been playing around lately with Ubuntu 17.10 successfully recovering data from a bad HDD, quite impressed by it also.

First question is. I have an old OCZ Vertex 3 120GB that has been lying around forever and want to wipe it to factory settings and install Ubuntu on it (so I don't need to run Windows side by side on my current OS drive). I'm assuming the easiest way to do this is to do the following?

• Boot Ubuntu from USB installer
• Select 'Try Ubuntu before you install it'
• Open the Terminal and
• Use the Command-line to Simple Secure Erase i.e. hdparm --security-erase PASS /dev/sdX

My second question is, if the above will work do I then need to format the entire SSD in ext4 or does the installer by default format/partition the SSD when 'Erase disk and install Ubuntu' is selected?

 

Securely erasing old SSD - Ubuntu

To secure erase an SSD you need to use the manufactures utility
https://support.ocz.com/customer/en...i-secure-erase-my-sata-ssd-using-ssd-utility-

Although installing Linux will erase the part it is installed to

 

Samsung Magician Secure Erase

This blog details the meticulous steps, trials & errors, one person took to attempt to securely erase and then verify a secure erasure of various SSD erase operations.
Ways to Securely Erase a Solid State Drive (SSD) | Ray Woodcock's Latest
It's quite a read, and really helps to understand what's going on, as well as a bit startling as to some of the results he saw. Some of the comments are also eye-opening.

I also learned that TRIM does not work on a USB-connected SSD.