Using a tool like CCleaner's 'Drive Wiper', securely erase unused space on your hard disk. Merely deleting files doesn't overwrite the data, so it could still be recovered. Over the past year my laptop has become very sluggish and slow so I want to erase my hard drive and start from scratch. All of my information is backed up on an external hard drive so I can recover my Outlook PST and so forth.
- How To Completely Wipe A Hard Drive
- How To Erase Hard Drive Before Recycling
- How To Erase Your Hard Drive And Start Over Automatically
- How To Erase Your Hard Drive And Start Over 50
While there's nothing to stop you selling your PC with the contents of its hard drive intact, it's a very bad idea. Apart from the fact that you'll be giving the new owner access to all of your files and other personal information, you'll also be selling any software that's still installed. Even if this was legal (which it usually isn't), that means you won't be able to install the same software on your new PC — not without breaking the law, anyway.
So the solution is to wipe your PC and restore it to a factory fresh state, with nothing but the Windows operating system installed. This, incidentally, is something you might also want to do when you want to reinstall Windows from scratch to give your computer a new lease of life — getting rid of years' worth of old stuff can work wonders. This process has changed a bit with the arrival of Windows 10 and there are two ways to do it, depending on what you want to achieve. We'll cover both.
Getting ready
Step 1: Backup your files
Windows 10 can ‘refresh' your PC without affecting your documents, but we still recommend backing them up before trying it — just in case.
When you wipe your PC, on the other hand, everything on it is lost, so you'll need to backup any files and documents you want to keep.
The easiest way to do this is to drag the contents of your Documents folder (and any others you want to save) onto an external storage device, such as a hard drive or USB flash drive. Alternatively, you can use cloud storage such as BT Cloud. Copying to and from cloud storage will be much slower than using an external hard drive, however, so think twice before using it for more than a few gigabytes worth of files.
Step 2: Save your software serial numbers
Any installed software will also be lost when you wipe your PC (whichever method you use), so you'll need to reinstall it afterwards. So review what's currently installed, and dig out the corresponding install discs and serial numbers.
Most relatively recent software can usually be downloaded, too, but you'll still need a valid serial number or activation code to use it. If you don't have these, a free tool like Belarc Advisor will list all software installed on your PC and any corresponding serial numbers — just click Software Licences in the left of its results windows to see yours.
Step 3: Download any drivers
While Windows 10 should detect all hardware in a relatively new PC and install its own drivers, it's risky to rely on that happening. If nothing else, you should download the necessary driver for your computer's Wi-Fi or network adapter, then at least you'll be able to get online afterwards to download any other drivers you might need.
You'll need to refer to your computer's manual or its manufacturer's web site to see which driver you need — and best sure to save it on a removable drive, not the hard drive you're about to wipe.
Option 1: Reset this PC
How To Completely Wipe A Hard Drive
Windows 10 has a built-in method for wiping your PC and restoring it to an ‘as new' state. You can choose to preserve just your personal files or to erase everything, depending on what you need.
Go to Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery, click Get started and select the appropriate option. Then follow the on-screen instructions to restore Windows 10 to a factory fresh state.
How to wipe an os from hard drive. Option 2: Securely format the PC
If you're selling or giving your PC to someone else, it's a good idea to securely erase the hard drive before reinstalling Windows 10 to prevent any old data from being recovered. This is rather more involved than Option 1 and the exact steps to reinstall Windows afterwards depend on how Windows 10 was supplied.
If you don't have a Windows 10 install disc of some sort, you'll need to follow Steps 1 to 6 of our How to perform a clean installation of Windows 10 guide, but don't go any further than Step 6 for now.
1. Download DBAN How to download epic games.
Whatever these case, once you have a Windows 10 install disc, you'll then need to download the free DBAN (Darik Boot And Nuke) tool and burn it to a CD.
2. Boot your PC with the DBAN disc
Boot your PC using the DBAN disc and press the [Enter] key to continue from the first menu screen.
What is the latest mac operating system. When the main DBAN screen appears, use the [J] and [K] keys to highlight the hard drive partition you want to erase (if there's more than one) and select it by pressing the [Space bar].
3. Securely erase your hard drive
Then, when you're ready to proceed, press the [F10] key to begin the secure erase. This will take some time and the process cannot be interrupted.
4. Reinstall Windows 10
When the secure erase has finished and you see a ‘Blancco' ad, eject the DBAN disc and reset your PC. You can now reinstall Windows 10 by following Steps 7 to 11 in our guide.
In this day and age, everyone must be using a Windows or macOS powered laptop or desktop. If you use either of these, you are bound to be using hard drives.
In some cases, SSDs are used in Laptops or PCs but generally, people use hard drives. This is because they are much cheaper than SSDs and have a large capacity for data storage.
Talking about hard drives, there should be loads of data on your hard drive. This data can be on your PC's hard drive or your laptop's. But the main point is that there is important data on the drive. Let's assume that you want to erase the data from your hard drive for some reason.
This reason could be for selling the PC, donating or giving it away. So you obviously don't want to keep your data on the drive and want to erase it. Now, how would you be able to erase data from your hard drive?
For this reason, we have compiled this tutorial to let you know how to completely wipe a hard drive. Therefore, if you are looking to wipe your hard drive for some reason then you should follow this tutorial properly. It will ensure that no data is left on your hard drive and you are safe to sell, donate or give away your hard drive.
Wiping a hard drive is also helpful when your PC is infected by a virus. This wipe can also be to remove redundant data on the disk to free up space.
On Windows, there are two options to wipe a hard drive. First one is to use Windows 10's native tools to wipe the hard drive. The alternative to this to use third party tools for wiping such as DBAN. Fret not as we will cover both those options in this tutorial down below
Wiping Hard Drive in Windows 10 (Native tools)
If you are a Windows user, you must have already upgraded to Windows 10. This latest version of Windows is also the final one. There are various tools available from third-party manufacturers to wipe a hard drive.
But why would you download an external application if the feature is present by default? Yes, you can easily wipe your hard drive in Windows 10 by using default tools.
The first thing you need to do is make sure the name of the hard drive that you are wiping. For this, you need to go to your Windows Explorer and see the name of the hard drive. However, it is obvious that you will not be able to delete your C:/ drive from inside Windows 10. Because your operating system is installed on C:/ drive, usually.
Once that is complete, right-click on Start and Open Windows Powershell also known as Command Prompt.
Type the following command in Windows Powershell:
Colocalizer pro 6 0 battery. In the above command, you need to replace 'volume' with your desired hard drive for wiping. Also, the passes would be replaced by the number of times, you need to wipe your hard drive. Remember that the higher the pass number, the better your hard drive will be wiped.
For example, if you are wiping your D: drive in 5 passes then your command will look as below:
Format D: /P:5
That's it. Your hard drive will be wiped completely and you can use it after completion
If you are not on Windows 10, what should you do?
Well, if you are on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 then also the same command as above will work. The above command works on Windows Vista and above versions so you are lucky.
Wiping a Hard Drive in Windows 10(DBAN)
For some reason, if you are not happy about Windows 10's native wipe tool. You can use a third-party tool for wiping your hard drive. The best tool for this purpose is DBAN. DBAN, Darik's Boot and Nuke is a tool made for destroying data in bulk.
Well, DBAN has one massive advantage over using Windows's native tools. DBAN can wipe your entire C: drive as well. Yes, your C: drive can also be wiped even if your Windows 10 is installed on that drive.
Before using DBAN for wiping your hard drive, make sure to take a back up of your data. This is in case you have some valuable data which needs to be kept safe. DBAN already warns users that your data, once wiped, will be irretrievable.
How To Erase Hard Drive Before Recycling
DBAN is available in ISO format. So you need to write this file to a disk before you can use it.
For this, you need to download DBAN's ISO file from here. After this, insert a CD/DVD into your PC. Then, right-click on the downloaded DBAN ISO file and select 'Burn disc image'. Select the CD which you have inserted and wait for the burning process to complete.
Now, make sure to once again identify which hard drive needs to be wiped using DBAN.
Once that is done, boot into DBAN. Remember that you cannot use DBAN inside Windows. You need to boot into DBAN for wiping the drive. So you need to restart your PC and select the option to boot from CD/DVD. This is where you have burned the DBAN iso image.
How To Erase Your Hard Drive And Start Over Automatically
Here are the wipe options available inside DBAN:
- F2 to learn about DBAN
- F3 for a list of commands
- F4 for troubleshooting
- Tap Enter to use DBAN in interactive mode
- Enter the phrase
autonuketo let DBAN automatically wipe every drive on your computer
Rather, press Enter and follow the guide to wipe your hard drive
With the help of arrow keys, select the device which matches the name of your hard drive. Press Space and press F10. This will start the process of wiping your hard drive.
Done. You just wiped your hard drive using DBAN.
How To Erase Your Hard Drive And Start Over 50
Conclusion
As we mentioned earlier, you may want to wipe your hard drive for various reasons out of the above. For this, you can either use the Windows' native method or wipe your hard drive using DBAN. It is entirely up to your will. But do make sure to verify the name of the hard drive before you start wiping the hard drive. Otherwise, your data will be lost and you will no longer be able to recover it.
