The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software product for performance enhancement of a memory device (e.g., a memory card) using a pre-erase mechanism. The memory device can be, e.g., a memory card, a multimedia card or a secure digital card, etc. A new command or commands can be used to inform a memory device controller when the data in one particular sector, allocation unit or block can be deleted. Using that information the memory device controller then can be able to do some internal maintenance, e.g., by moving valid data from a fragmented erase block to another so that the fragmented erase block can be cleared and erased for future use as well as performing effective wear leveling maintenance and write performance optimization.