Security … Depends. If you want to sell the SSD, then yes, wiping the SSD is advised. You don’t need complicated random multiple-write patterns. Just make sure to wipe everything (keywords: wear-leveling, cache), you could use blkdiscard for that.

Performance-wise nothing noticeable would change. Physically, SSDs are fast enough to modify the charge traps to store the bits as needed to store files regardless of what’s in those traps ().

If you plan using the SSD for your own, you don’t need to wipe it, just repartition as needed and create the file systems in the partitions. What I do, is writing some data to the storage to destroy the partition table (dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/XYZ where XYZ is my target device – and then leave it runninf for a few seconds).

Since you’re using encryption, the common tools only see garbage and no data (i.e. file system). So simply don’t decrypt and work with the mapped partition but use the device directly.

How does NAND Flash Work? Reading from TLC : Triple Level Cells || Exploring Solid State Drives

You can hold all the data in the American Library of Congress AND all the data from Wikipedia on a small stack of solid-state drives especially considering a...

^YouTube

There's no performance improvement to wiping an SSD. At least not meaningfully, on a completely empty SSD that has been factory wiped. You may see a first time right improvement but that goes away as soon as the SSD starts doing garbage collection.

As for your other reasons, they're completely up to you.

Are there any benefits, in terms of performance or security in 'wiping' or overwriting an SSD before reinstalling Linux?

No

Are there any benefits, in terms of performance or security in ‘wiping’ or overwriting an SSD before reinstalling Linux?

Yes, you remove the possibility of theoretically restoring the old data previously stored on the storage device.

And if so, what is the best way of doing it? I’m planning on doing a clean install of Debian 13

Select encrypted storage when partitioning, make sure you select the "Overwrite with random data" option.

I’m currently on Fedora and using encryption and will be using encryption on Debian too.

If it's a full disk encryption on both current and future setup, there's no benefit from overwriting.

Not really, unless it was previously used to store unencrypted data.

If you want to destroy old unencrypted data, the fastest way that uses the fewest P/E cycles is to run Secure Erase with hdparm. Many modern SSDs perform hardware encryption, whether you set a password or not. Secure Erase just wipes the encryption key and installs a fresh one. That's usually good enough for personal use, but it also depends on how well the manufacturer implemented hardware encryption, if at all.

If you want the data gone and don't trust the manufacturer, the Debian installer offers an option to overwrite free space when setting up partitions. Disclaimer that this would not touch the ~7% hardware-reserved spare blocks that may have been cycled in and out of service.

The following are anecdotal:

• Some SSDs might understand the idea of wiping with zeros and just throw out writes from dd in conjunction with if=/dev/zero, resulting in an apparent, but insecure wipe
• I run wipefs -a /dev/yourDrive on fresh or reused drives to eliminate any potential issues with the remnants of an old partition table. This only erases partition tables, not data blocks.
• A SSD in poor health started throwing errors about bad sectors and stalled the boot process. This was a test rig, so I didn't really care about data longevity. A full overwrite with dd forced the SSD to retire the bad sectors and gave it a couple more years of useful life.

You only need to overwrite the drive with random data once. Then, as long as every OS install uses FDE, there's no need to repeat the process.

The reasons why you do the full disk wipe are:

1. To hide the size of the encrypted data by making encrypted data indistinguishable from empty space
2. To erase unencrypted data previously stored on the drive

Both of which only need to be dealt with once, so long as you don't write unencrypted data to the drive after doing the wipe.

Depends on how important it is to keep confidentiality.

Best way to secure already written unencrypted data is probably putting the device into a microwave, and then burning it.

For new data on Linux, LUKS encryption should probably be fine.

Maybe. Some people have used SpinRite 6.1 to rewrite every sector, and that’s improved performance on some SSD’s. It rewrites each sector and restores the cell’s charge. That’s great if you need the data on there now.

Now, if you’re erasing the disk (by any means, including just a quick format C:), any sectors you use will be written with new data, so that shouldn’t matter.

Just erase the disk (securely, if you want) and get going, and it should be fine.

I don't think Windows will spy on Linux, but you never know, as we don't have the source code of Windows to look it up.
If you get ransomed, they can lock the whole ssd, even if your Linux partition might be encrypted already. And even if you have Linux on a separate ssd.

To prevent all that, practice good use of Windows without going to questionable websites or downloading apps from random places. But the best would be to either have a different PC for Linux. You can buy a small factor PC for $99 these days, brand new. Or, each time before you boot into windows, you disable on the BIOS the SSD with Linux in it. This way, no Windows malware can "see" that there's another SSD there, so they won't be able to lock it. Unless of course they lock your BIOS too...

Other systems should not be able to see your data on a Linux install as long as the disk is encrypted, which is proposed during the install of many distros.

AFAIU, ransomware will try to lock all devices, USB drives, etc, so no, your Linux install is not safe from that if it is on the same machine. Even machine on the same network might be at risk.

How to prevent ? Backup! Loosing your entire machine data should not be an issue but just a matter of re-installing the OS and recovering your data from a backup. Have at least two backup, including one outside of your house.

About dualbooting though... Putting Windows + anything else on a single drive is a really bad idea and Windows WILL try and take over it, at least breaking the boot partition. More concerning, and it actually happened to me recently: when putting a Linux on one disk and Windows on an other in the same machine, the Windows somehow still managed to break the Linux boot partition...

So if you can afford it and really want to have both OS, you should try and have two machines or at least install Linux on a drive that you can easily unplug.

I hope this will be helpful, good luck!

If I'm doing windows linux dual boot

You should feel bad

Cats. Bless the internet for cat videos.

Also computers, but they make me want to die almost as often, so let's just say cats.

Honestly I'm still in a rough place and I know I'm being a bit one-dimensonal with what I keep posting about but my relatively new found hobby in leatherworking is really making me happy. Its not just the fun and fulfillment of designing and making something but I've had so many nice comments on my work from so many people, family, friends, internet strangers and even from professionals who have praised me on the designs and execution to the point where they expressed interest to work with me and my patterns. I even made a new friend from it, an older lady whom I keep in frequent contact with over email about things we are making.

It has been my dream for a while now to have a side hustle with this and this feels like a good first potential step into that world.

The prospects to learn new things (as in learn interesting facts, learn about technologies or animals and especially learn new skills). I mean, if i wasn't alive i wouldn't really notice but i also would't experience the joy of learning and mastering a new skill or hearing about new perspectives or grow as a person.

Also cheese.

This is random, but chance encounters with animals. There's a paddock abutting my backyard that rarely gets used, but sometimes there are a couple of horses that get turned out into it. I'm always excited to see them and would love to meet them if they come to the fence line!

Also, I don't do this often, but yesterday I took myself out for tea. There's a cute tea cottage not too far away that offers a four-course afternoon tea. First course is quiche with dressed greens, second is a scone with clotted cream and lemon curd, third is a variety of finger sandwiches, and fourth course is a variety of dessert bites. So I brought my kindle and drank an entire pot of tea over the course of the meal. It was a real indulgence and definitely made me happy to be alive ;)

Not to rush into relationships. That we can choose who to have relationships with and what that looks like. We aren't indebted to anybody for any reason whatsoever in terms of relationships, and they don't have to look like what others expect or even what we expect unless we have had that discussion explicitly.

We also wish we knew we were many things to do with our identity earlier: Demi*, relationship anarchists, polyamorous, transgender and transspecies, plural etc.

We also wish we learned how to love ourselves, probably the most important one of all, but we're just learning now.

*demisexual, demiromantic, demikinky, demisensual and demiaffectionate.

As a tall girl (like, really tall), where to buy clothes that had long enough sleeves to fit. I was confused for a long time because there isn't a single clothing store to my knowledge in the U.S. that actual sells tall sizes in the store. So I was buying T-shirts, dresses, and unflattering mens' clothes. But a lot of those stores do have tall sizes, just on their website and in limited quantities. All my friends are shorter, so no one in my life knew this, and generally have been skeptical when I tell them that no brick-and-mortars actually have anything that fits.

Another thing I've learned is that I should be slow to jump on seasonal clothes, and that you save money in the long run by spending more on clothes, or by buying vintage clothes that existed before the brands enshittified. Most of my favorite tops are vintage Eddie Bauers, LL Beans, and Long Tall Sallys that I've carefully picked up from Poshmark over the years, and they've really stood the test of time.