Standard formatting tools in Windows or macOS only delete the "pointers" to your files. The actual data stays on the NAND chips until it’s eventually overwritten, making it easy for recovery software to scavenge. A true NVMe secure erase offers: How to *secure erase* a NVMe SSD - Ask Ubuntu
Stop overwriting your NVMe drives. It’s slow, inefficient, and technically less secure than the native alternative. Trust the controller to do the job it was designed for—use for a clean, secure, and efficient wipe. nvme format secure erase
Traditional wiping tools work by overwriting every sector of a drive with zeros or random data. This was effective for HDDs because the data was written magnetically to a specific physical location. Standard formatting tools in Windows or macOS only
blkdiscard or nvme dsm (Dataset Management) only unmap logical blocks — data may still be recoverable via NAND reads. Secure erase via format works at the controller/firmware level. It’s slow, inefficient, and technically less secure than
nvme security-send /dev/nvme0 --nvmsid # if PSID available