Are there any benefits, in terms of performance or security in ‘wiping’ or overwriting an SSD before reinstalling Linux? And if so, what is the best way of doing it?

I’m planning on doing a clean install of Debian 13 on my laptop soon.

I’m currently on Fedora and using encryption and will be using encryption on Debian too. I do not have a separate home partition.

Thanks :)

  • DrDystopia@lemy.lol
    4·
    18 hours ago

    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.