5 Easy Fixes to Secure Erase Not Supported on Selected SSD

On this page, you can grab the 5 easy fixes to solve secure erase not supported on selected SSD with Samsung Magician. If you fail to fix it, you can try the best alternative to secure erase an SSD likewise.

By @Clytze Last Updated October 11, 2024

User case

 

Secure Erase not supported on selected SSD

I have a Samsung SSD 840 Evo and a Gigabyte motherboard GA 970aud3p ATX AM3+. I am attempting to perform a secure erase. I have copied Windows onto a USB and have booted from USB into my BIOS. After I push "Y" to confirm that I want to perform the erase on my Samsung SSD I get a message that says, "Secure erase not supported by selected SSD". After some research, I tied to disconnect the SSD completely for about 20 seconds, and retry the secure erase using the segui0 prompt from DOS. Going through the same steps, I still get that message. I am using Samsung magician. Need help or ideas please!

- Question from tom’s HARDWARE

What lead to this drive is not supported?

If you want to resell or give away your Samsung SSD, you must ensure that all personal sensitive data on that disk cannot be recovered or maliciously retrieved. But when you are trying that, you may encounter the errors of Samsung Magician Secure Erase USB not working, selected SSD is not supported, etc. Here has listed some of the reasons that may cause the second error.  

  • Outdated SSD driver. If the Samsung SSD that you are currently using is outdated, then it may probably can not be supported.
  • Outdated Samsung Magician version. If the Samsung Magician version is outdated and is not compatible with some new Samsung SSDs.
  • Lack of NVMe driver: Some models of Samsung SSDs like 960 EVO/970 EVO require NVMe drivers to be installed, thus it can be recognized and for further using.
  • RAID mode is enabled. Incorrect RAID and SATA mode settings can also lead to Samsung Magician doesn’t recognize SSD and not support secure erase feature.

After having a general understanding of the possible causes of Samsung Secure Erase not supported on selected SSD issue, you can next refer to the methods listed below for troubleshooting.

How to fix Samsung Secure Erase not supported on selected SSD

To solve Samsung 970 EVO Plus secure erase not supported on the select drive issue, this part has listed 5 easy ways that may probably working to fix it. Try them in turn to see if one of them useful for you.

Fix 1. Update SSD driver via Device Manager

1. Right-click the Start menu and select Device Manager from the list.

2. Expand the Disk drives category, right-click the Samsung SSD driver and then select Update driver.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the new drivers automatically or manually.

4. Restart your computer and check if the issue still persists.

Fix 2. Install the latest Samsung Magician software

1. Right-click the Start menu and select Apps and Features from the list.  Find Samsung Magician software, double click it, and select Uninstall.

2. Go to Samsung’s official support website, download and install the latest version of Samsung Magician software. When the installation completes, restart your computer and check if the issue is fixed or not.

Fix 3. Install Samsung NVMe Driver

1. Go to the Samsung official website, find your SSD model and then click on it.

2. Navigate to Download Files, find out the NVMe Driver and click Download to install it on your computer.

3. Wait for the process to complete and restart your computer to check if the selected SSD can be supported with Secure Erase.

Fix 4. Disable RAID and switch to the AHCI mode

This error may also happens after you enable the RAID mode in BIOS settings. For this situation, you can disable RAID and switch SATA mode to the AHCI mode.

1. Restart your computer and press the specific keys like F2/F12/Del (according to your computer motherboard) repeatedly to access BIOS settings.

2. When you boot into the BIOS settings, look for RAID or RAID Support option and set it to Disabled.

3, Then look for SATA Mode entry in the BIOS settings and set it to AHCI. Then, save changes and restart your computer.

Fix 5. Secure erase SSD with best Samsung Magician alternative

If none of the above methods can solve your problem at all, it's time to try a more flexible wiping method. Here I highly recommend you to try AOMEI Backupper Professional, a powerful disk wiping tool for all Windows systems, including Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP. You can have a preview of its prominent functions of Disk Wipe below.

◐ Flexible wiping types: You can choose to wipe an entire disk, a selected partition, unallocated space, or wipe free space on Windows 11 to meet your various needs. ◑ Support all SSDs more than Samsung. You can use its Disk Wipe tool to delete files on different brand SSDs such as WD, HP, Dell, Seagate, etc. not only Samsung. ◐ Support wipe multiple devices. You are allowed to wipe SSDs, wipe C drive, a USB drive, hard disk drive as well as SD card. ◑ Various wiping methods. It offers you with 4 professional wiping methods, they are Fill sectors with zero, Fill sectors with random data, DoD 52220.22-M, Gutmann.

Follow the graphical steps below to secure erase an SSD with AOMEI Backupper:

NOTE: The wiped data on SSD can no longer be restored. It is recommended to backup important data in advance.

Step 1. Download, install and launch AOMEI Backupper Professional. Go to Tools > Disk Wipe and click it.

Download DemoWin11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 2. Among Wipe selected partitions or unallocated space on the disk and Wipe disk options, select Wipe disk to wipe all sectors on the disk at once and click Next.

◈ Tip: Currently, this software doesn’t support erasing dynamic disks.

Step 3Select the SSD you want to erase and click Next.

Step 4. In Wiping Method window, select Fill sectors with Zero and click Start to continue the process.

Final words

If you encounter Secure Erase not supported on selected SSD with Samsung Magician, you can refer to this post to catch the 5 easy fixes to settle this error. But when you find that none of them can get you out of trouble, then it’s time for you to try a more flexible way to secure erase a Samsung SSD or other SSDs.

Luckily, there’s one professional disk wiper AOMEI Backupper can do you a big favor. It can help you erase SSDs without brand restrictions and offers you a lot of wipe methods to meet your various security levels.

In addition, before you decide to secure erase an SSD, you may need to protect the existing data on it. AOMEI has a disk clone feature that can help you clone SSD to anther SSD to completely migrate all data for further protection.