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G3 secure erase doesn't work since USB boot doesn't show.
I'm using Samsung Magician to secure erase everything in my SSD. Windows is installed in the SSD, but I want to take it out to use it on another pc.
I'm trying to reboot and do the secure erase while installing windows in another SSD, but there's no way to make the USB boot show in boot priorities. What am I supposed to do?
I tried changing to Legacy options but the USB just doesn't show.
I had already updated BIOS.
Why is this an issue with DELL?
jphughan
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June 11th, 2020 14:00
@gonzaloetjo Strange, I would have expected that switching to Legacy mode or even just enabling Legacy Option ROMs (aka UEFI CSM) while in UEFI mode would allow you to boot from a Linux-based flash drive even if the Linux kernel Samsung uses doesn't support UEFI mode. Do you have to use Samsung's own Secure Erase feature? I understand it's fast and comprehensive, but for example you could just use something like VeraCrypt to enable encryption on the entire drive and then repurpose it. That way all sector on the SSD (or at least all sectors on the Windows partition) will have been overwritten.
jphughan
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June 11th, 2020 12:00
@gonzaloetjo Are you looking in the BIOS Setup or the F12 one-time boot menu? Systems designed to boot in UEFI mode handle booting very differently. In order for a boot option to show up in the actual BIOS Setup menu, it has to be registered into the firmware. OS installers take care of this, but obviously you won't find something like that for a temporarily connected flash drive. By comparison, the F12 one-time boot menu populates dynamically based on the boot options connected to the system at that time. If you still can't see your flash drive, have you confirmed that it actually boots on some other system? I've also seen some cases where certain systems just won't boot from certain flash drives, so you could try another flash drive.
In order to boot in UEFI mode, the flash drive would have to be formatted as FAT32 and you'd need to see a file called Bootx64.efi under the \EFI\Boot folder.
gonzaloetjo
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June 11th, 2020 13:00
Thanks for your response jphughan.
Apparently Samsung Magician installs a linux boot instead of windows.
So, I checked with Windows Media Creator, and when done like this the USB actually appears. The issue is that this doesn't allow the option to Secure Erase with Samsung Magician. I'm kind of stuck there and thinking if I will have to buy another SSD and leave this one there.