Introduction:
When you either arrange a hard drive or delete some part of it, it means you are deleting only the file system which makes the given data invisible or is no longer in the list and is completely gone. The information is always resumed by either a file recovery program or special hardware.
So if you want to be sure that some of the information about yourself you didn’t want to give because of some situation is gone completely then you will need to wipe the hard drive using special software. So to be able to wipe a hard drive can work which is the same way as an operating system, which can be with some ‘bootable’ tools
How To Wipe A Computer Hard Drive:
The process of wiping a computer hard drive which takes at least several minutes to several hours, which is depending on how big the drive is and the type of method chosen for cleaning is fully up to us.
By backing up everything that is chosen such as photos, software product keys, etc, So when your chosen place is wiped completely, then you won’t get those things back on the drive.
1. Backup Maker on Windows:
So when you use an online backup service it can safely be said that all of your important along with necessary files are safe and are backed up online. But your important files got deleted and you weren’t energetic you can select some reliable backup tools that can help to protect and backup files on an external hard drive.
You can back up as many files as you want there are times when some virtual devices can share space on a physical hard drive. And viewing different volumes that are seen on a hard drive which is seen in the “Disk Management Tool” in “Windows.”
2. Download a Free Distraction Program:
So if any of the six programs that are recommended by us on the given list works great and they are used in wiping the hard drive from outside of the Windows, which is a necessary feature who’s features you have wanted to wipe the said drive from where the said Window is installed to.
A lot of us support DBN a lot, which is also almost everyone’s first selection in the list. Since DBN is very well-known and is used around the world ( but we should also keep in mind that it doesn’t wipe solid-state drives). If you have a problem understanding what DBN is? And how it works? Then you can watch tutorials on the net.
There are so many ways to completely delete a hard drive. One of the easiest ways is ‘data destruction software’. Which is not only the easiest but also allows the hard drive to be used again.
3. Taking Necessary Steps to Complete the Software:
You must complete the given steps which are important to install the software or the ‘bootable’ tool like DBN. You can also get an ISO image on a CD or DVD along with the USB drive which is just like a ‘flashcard’ drive:
1. If you’re using a CD or DVD:
This process mostly shows is first burning of the IOS image and then booting from the disc so it can run the program.
2. If you’re Using a Flash Drive or Another USB:
This process first starts with the same burning of the IOS image this time to the USB device and then booting from the USB drive to get the process started.
4. Wip the hard drive according to the program’s instructions.
5 . After all the process is completed you can be at ease that whatever information was on the drive is gone for good.
So now you can easily install different Windows on your drive to create new energy whether you sell or give away either it is a drive, or a computer, whether it is recycled or deposited of it. If you want to retrieve your files again restoring the process for it is quite easy and other things you need to do.
How to Completely Wipe an Old Hard Drive:
Then, discover how to keep your PC clean with dedicated tune-up software.
Can You Completely Wipe A Hard Drive?
This always a question that has confused so many people but when you ask it from an expert like a helpline the answer is yes, you can completely wipe a hard drive, but for this, you need to find a technique that is more than simply for deleting the files that are stored on it.
Deleting files from a hard drive doesn’t actually remove them but it just reassigns that space so new files can be added later on. To clean a drive completely, you need to erase the data.
Properly wiping a drive ensures the files are Erased and Truly Gone:
It will prevent anyone from recovering the deleted data. This is why it’s so important to learn how to wipe your hard drive before selling or discarding computers and external storage devices.
If you just want to free up disk space on your hard drive, you can find and delete temporary files hiding in odd places. Or, you can consider defragging your hard drive to add some space. But, these solutions aren’t ideal if you plan to get rid of your hard drive afterward.
So through our discussion, we came to know that wiping a hard drive is also an essential part of reformatting a drive happens when you delete all the data on it and change its file system to match a new operating system. But before the drive can be reformatted for the new system, all the old data needs to be wiped clean.
When Should I Completely Wipe A Hard Drive?
1. When selling, trading in, or throwing out a computer:
You should always wipe your hard drive any time you’re getting rid of a computer that is whether it’s the internal drive in your computer or an external USB drive. This ensures that any personal data on the drive will be unrecoverable should someone else try to do so.
2. When Getting rid of Damaged Drives:
While damaged hard drives may not be usable, that doesn’t mean they’re completely useless. Someone can still recover the data from them, which they can then perhaps sell on the dark web, use to commit identity theft or guess your passwords.
Though solid-state drives (SSDs) with TRIM enabled will automatically overwrite deleted files, perform a wipe to be 100% sure your hard drive is clean.
3. When upgrading to a Solid-State Drive
After upgrading from a hard disk drive (HDD) to a solid-state drive (SDD) and migrating your data to the new drive, wipe your old hard drive if you’re planning on giving it away or getting rid of it. You can also buy a casing for your old drive and continue using it as an external storage device.
4. When Starting over from Square one:
Completely wiping a hard drive and starting anew is surely a drastic option, but it’s also an effective way to restore an older hard drive or a PC or increase the maximum if possible by operating efficiency. Wiping your drive can help fix 100% of disk usage on Windows, and remove all the bloatware you’ve unknowingly collected.
How To Wipe A Hard Drive In Windows:
You have a few options for wiping a hard drive in Windows 11 or Windows 10. We’ll guide you through each procedure in both versions of Windows to help you clear your data and keep it safe.
Before you Start:
Always back up your data before wiping a hard drive or making any other significant changes or repairs to your PC. Cloud storage solutions as well as external hard drives are both great ways to keep your data safe in case something goes wrong. You can even clone your hard drive, which will give you a complete copy of your entire disk.
Save your passwords and any other important credentials — once you wipe your hard drive, there’s no getting the data back. If you don’t plan to keep this computer, create a Windows recovery drive so you can reinstall Windows on your new machine if needed.
Creating a recovery drive is the same in Windows 11 and Windows 10. Here’s how it looks in Windows 11:
How to Create a Windows Recovery Drive in Windows 11 or 10:
Type recovery drives into the search box or Start menu and select Recovery Drive. Click Yes to allow the Recovery Media Creator app to make changes to your device.
Finding the Recovery Drive app in Windows 11:
- Make sure the box for Back up system to the recovery drive is checked, then click Next.
- Creating a recovery drive in Windows 11
- Connect your external drive to your computer via USB. Click Next, and then click Create on the following screen.
- Connecting a USB drive to use as a recovery drive in Windows 11
Format an External Drive:
Formatting an external storage device wipes any data on it and prepares it for use with your device. Here’s how to reformat a hard drive with the Format tool on Windows 10:
- Connect the USB drive to your PC.
- Then, open the File Explorer app.
- File Explorer in Windows 10
- Right-click the external disk and select Format.
- Choose a file system and follow the instructions.
- Right-click an external drive in Windows 10 File Explorer, then select Format to reformat the drive.
If your external drive doesn’t appear in File Explorer, that may be because its current format is incompatible with Windows. In that case, you need to use the Disk Management tool to wipe it.
Use Disk Management to Wipe a Hard Drive:
The Disk Management tool can divide disks into partitions, or volumes. It’s like putting up a wall in a room to create two rooms. You can use Disk Management to wipe a disk that isn’t formatted for Windows, but you need to be logged in as an administrator.
Here’s How To Use Disk Management To Wipe A Disk In Windows 10:
- Connect your external drive to your PC via a USB port.
- Then, press the Windows key + X and select Disk Management.
- Opening the Disk Management tool in Windows 10
- Right-click the drive you’d like to wipe and select Format.
- Choose a new file system.
- Selecting a drive and reformatting it in the Windows 10 Disk Management tool.
Initializing a disk in Disk Management:
If the drive you’d like to wipe can’t be formatted, you may need to initialize it. Initializing a drive will wipe the drive and reformat it for Windows.
- Right-click the disk and select Initialize.
- Select GPT and click OK.
Initializing a disk in the Disk Management tool for Windows 10:
Now you can format the disk using Disk Management as described above. Choose the NFTS format to use the disk with Windows.
Choose NTFS when reformatting a drive or volume to use it with Windows.
Reset your PC:
Resetting your PC on Windows 11 and 10 wipes all your programs and data, then reinstalls Windows. It’s a good way to give your PC a fresh start if something isn’t working right, or if you’re going to get rid of it. Here’s how to reset your PC in Windows 11 and 10.
How to Reset Your PC in Windows 11:
There are many ways to reset your PC in Windows 11, which are :
- Open the Start menu and select Settings.
- Opening the Settings in Windows 11
- Choose the System category from the menu on the left, then scroll down and select Recovery.
Accessing The Recovery Settings In Windows 11:
There are many ways to recover the settings of Windows 11:
- Click Reset PC.
- Resetting a PC in Windows 11
- Select Remove Everything.
- Choosing how to reset a PC in Windows 11
- Choose how you’d like to reinstall Windows, then click Change settings.
Accessing Additional PC Reset Settings in Windows 11
- Switch the Clean data. toggle to On, then press Confirm.
- Choosing to clean data when resetting a PC in Windows 11
- Click Next, then click Reset to wipe your hard drive.
- Resetting a PC in Windows 11
How to Reset your PC in Windows 10:
To reset your PC Windows 10:
- Open Settings from the Start menu.
- Opening the settings menu to reset your PC in Windows 10.
- Click Update & Security.
- Clicking Update & Security to reset your PC in Windows 10.
- Click Recovery on the left-side menu, then click Get Started under Reset this PC.
- Clicking Recovery to reset your PC in Windows 10.
Ways To Recover And Reset Your PC In Windows 10:
- Click Remove everything.
- Choosing how to reset a PC in Windows 11
- Select an option for reinstalling Windows, then click Change settings on the next screen.
- Accessing additional PC reset settings in Windows 10
- Flip the Clean data? toggle to On. Then, click Confirm.
- Choosing to clean data when resetting a PC in Windows 10
- Click Next, then click Reset to reset your Windows 10 PC.
Resetting a PC in Windows 10:
Third-Party Software Tools:
Specialized data sanitization software can scrub your hard drive clean, and some of the best data destruction tools are free. Here are a few data-wiping apps you can try:
DBAN
DBAN is a popular and free data wipe tool, but it only works on hard disk drives. If you have a solid-state drive, DBAN isn’t the right solution for you. But since it works from outside your operating system (OS), you can use it to wipe your entire machine.
Cleaner
A longtime player in the file management space, Cleaner’s free version will give your PC a thorough scrubbing. But to fully wipe your data, you’ll need to opt for the premium version. Cleaner is installed on your computer, so it can’t wipe the drive hosting your OS.
CBL Data Shredder
Use CBL Data Shredder from a CD or USB drive to wipe your entire drive, or install it and wipe parts of your PC.
If you’re not ready to completely wipe your hard drive using one of the tools above, first check out our essential guide on how to clean your PC — we’ll guide you through a complete cleanup to optimize your PC performance before you decide to erase your data.
How to Wipe a Hard Drive in macOS:
The process for wiping your hard drive on a Mac depends on whether you have a hard disk drive (HDD) or an SSD. To find out what’s in your Mac, click the Apple icon, then click About this Mac. In the window that opens up, navigate to the storage tab. In this example, our Mac has a 1 TB SSD (referred to as “Flash Storage”).
The storage tab in the About this Mac window.
Back up your data
Before wiping your drive, manually back up your data to an external storage device or a cloud storage solution. You can also use Apple’s built-in Time Machine utility to back up your computer. You’ll find it in your System Preferences.
Opening the Time Machine tool from the macOS System Preferences.
How to Wipe a Mac with an Intel Processor:
- Turn your Mac off. Then, press the power button and immediately hold down the Command + R keys until you see the Apple logo.
- Select Disk Utility from the options shown to you.
- Click Erase and choose a file system.
- Click Security Options if it’s available, then move the slider to the right for the most secure option. If you don’t see Security Options, it means that Disk Utility can’t securely wipe your drive.
- Select Erase, then click Done.
How to Wipe a Mac with an M1 Chip:
- Turn your Mac off. Then, press and hold the power button until you see the Startup Options window. Choose Options and Continue.
- Click Disk Utility in the next window.
- Choose your Macintosh HD from the side menu.
- Click Erase and choose a file system for your drive, then click Erase Volume Group.
How to Wipe a Mac with an SSD:
Disk Utility won’t let you securely wipe an SSD. Instead, Apple encourages you to use the File Vault utility, which encrypts your drive to prevent anyone else from accessing the data on it. To turn on File Vault encryption, click Security & Privacy from your System Preferences, then click the File Vault tab.
If you don’t choose to manage your File Vault encryption via your iCloud account, keep your recovery key safe.
Accessing the File Vault from the System Preferences in macOS Instead of wiping your drive, you can encrypt it, and then delete the File Vault key. Here’s how:
After using File Vault to encrypt your SSD, restart your Mac into Recovery mode using the procedures described above for either an Intel or M1 chip.
Open Disk Utility, Select your Drive, then Click Unlock.
Erase your now-unlocked drive — this will delete your File Vault key and render the data on the drive unrecoverable.
Optimize your Drive with Avast Cleanup
Wiping a drive is an effective security measure, but it’s also important to keep your drive clean while you’re still using it. A clean hard drive runs faster and Avast Cleanup can handle it all automatically. Delete junk files and bloatware, snooze resources, and hungry apps, and maximize the performance of your computer.
Conclusion:
When you either arrange a hard drive or delete some part of it, it means you are deleting only the file system which makes the given data invisible or is no longer in the list and is completely gone. The information is always resumed by either a file recovery program or special hardware.
So if you want to be sure that some of the information about yourself you didn’t want to give because of some situation is gone completely then you will need to wipe the hard drive using special software. So to be able to wipe a hard drive can work which is the same way as an operating system, which can be with some ‘bootable’ tools.
So deleting a file doesn’t always necessarily mean that it’s gone you need to wipe your hard drive properly. There are different ways to learn how to completely wipe a PC and how to erase a hard drive. Find out how to wipe a hard drive on Windows 10 and 11 to protect your data.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
a). Can I wipe a Drive without Deleting Windows?
It’s kind of difficult to delete one and keep one the same as in the case of this question so the answer is that while you can’t truly wipe the hard drive without deleting the OS, it’s easy if you reset Windows to its factory default settings, the process will erase personal files and applications on the system.
b). How do I Wipe an External hard drive?
To wipe an external hard drive you have to:
Connect the drive to your computer, open File Explorer > This PC, and select the external drive. Right-click and select Format, click a file system and then follow the prompts.
c). How do I Reinstall Windows on the Wiped Hard Drive?
To reinstall Windows on a wiped hard drive we have to insert a Windows DVD or a USB drive with the Windows ISO, reboot the PC, and then follow the install process prompts.
d). How do I reinstall macOS on a wiped Mac hard drive?
Answer: To reinstall macOS on a Mac hard drive is that after you’ve wiped the drive, open the macOS Utilities app, click Install macOS, and follow the prompts.