How to wipe a hard drive clean?


  1. Posts : 17
    Windows 10
       #1

    How to wipe a hard drive clean?


    Hey there mates.

    I'm currently in the process of building a new computer and am aiming to nuke my old hard drive due to the fact that I'll be using it as a sort of secondary drive for the bulk of items, but I'll be using a new SSD as the drive that contains the OS. On top of that, I know you are probably thinking that I should just move the OS from my HDD to my SSD, but I sort of acquired the Win 10 OS on my HDD from a less than ethical source, so it sort of has quite a few bugs in it that I can't seem to exterminate.

    TL;DR: How do I wipe a hard drive, OS and all, and still have it used as a secondary drive?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,327
    Windows 10 Home x64
       #2

    Formatting will usually do the trick, but sometimes........little pieces may be left. I've always used Dariks Boot and Nuke. Works like a charm and its free.

    Darik's Boot and Nuke download | SourceForge.net
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4,224
    Windows 10
       #3

    Even though this Tech Republic story is almost 4 years old, it remains a reasonably good source of pointers to utilities useful to your concerns: Five Hard Disk Cleaning and Erasing Tools.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    MiniTool Partition Wizard (which is also on Kyhi's recovery drive) has an option to wipe a hard drive by writing 0s, 1s or combination thereof to all the physical sectors on the hard drive:
    Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

    Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 14,586
    Windows 10 Professional x64
       #5

    indianacarnie said:
    Formatting will usually do the trick, but sometimes........little pieces may be left. I've always used Dariks Boot and Nuke. Works like a charm and its free.

    Darik's Boot and Nuke download | SourceForge.net
    I use DBAN every time, its a great tool and has never failed to get the job done %100 every time :)
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 22,740
    Windows 10 Home x64
       #6

    Stephanie said:
    I use DBAN every time, its a great tool and has never failed to get the job done %100 every time :)
    Thanks for the tip.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 14,586
    Windows 10 Professional x64
       #7

    As you boot from DBAN it will look for Drives to wipe so its a good idea to disconnect all drives apart from the Drive you want to wipe :)
      My Computer


 

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