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A little while ago I used the "Reset this PC" feature on windows 10 with my samsung 850 EVO. I chose remove my files but I cant quite remember if I chose to fully clean the drive or just create a quick format. I was wondering if it was a quick format, does windows still send a TRIM command to my SSD? Can't quite find a clear answer and would like to know if this old data is still sitting around inside my SSD or has garbage collection deleted it by now? (I know windows runs an auto optimization about weekly but I'm just wondering if specifically quick format sends a TRIM command)

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Answer: Quick format does not do TRIM on external USB but does do it on internal SATA disks.

My answer is based on the thesis Forensics research in Solid State Drives by Dekleris Dimitrios, from the University of Piraeus.

In his experiments, Dekleris Dimitrios has enabled TRIM, filled up the disk with images, did a quick format, and then scanned the disk with two free data-recovery products.

The results were that on USB the files were found with various degrees of success by both tools, in Windows 10 and in Windows 7.

For SATA, the firmware apparently started doing garbage collection on the entire disk by parts (probably disk banks), so data was disappearing before his eyes.

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    With all the "autopsy" / "forensics" he has done, he didn't know he should do research on whether there are bridge chips on the market with firmware that advertises SCSI UNMAP support, and confirm the sample he use is the case with sg_vpd. And now this student homework mentioning nothing about the relevant VPDs is used as a glorious reference. Nice.
    – Tom Yan
    Commented May 18, 2021 at 5:42
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    Btw, technically zero check is not a reliable proof of whether TRIM has been done. There's the bit RZAT in ATA and LBPRZ in SCSI to report such behavior -- which means it's optional, not to mention that how much / how well it is made use of by the vendors.
    – Tom Yan
    Commented May 18, 2021 at 6:08
  • @TomYan: I agree, the cited results from 2017 are correct only for certain combinations of hardware and software. However, I expect that they pertain to most that date from recent years.
    – harrymc
    Commented May 18, 2021 at 8:25
  • "Quick format does not do TRIM on external USB but does do it on internal SATA disks." - I wouldn't rely on this with modern external SSD's and SMR drives that support TRIM.
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented Jan 23 at 23:20
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SSD Optimization is Automatic. Set it ON and then it will do it as needed.

Every couple of weeks is fine.

Then it will happen soon enough after your quick format (although it will probably happen sooner).

Regular file operations do send out TRIM commands.

However, for sure, Automatic is better than trying to do it manually.

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