Your old computer or storage device no longer suits you? What if you replaced it with a new one? However, you still need to find a solution for the data stored on your old device. One of the solutions available to you is to wipe your hard drive. Wiping not only protects your confidential files, but also prevents them from falling into the wrong hands. So, how do you go about erasing your documents? Here are a few methods that can be of great help!

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Why wipe your hard drive? 

Contrary to what many people think, deleting files from the recycle bin is not enough to permanently clear your computer. Indeed, data erased from a device leaves traces behind, and it is possible to recover it. It is therefore important to find the right way to get rid of it, especially if you don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.

Wiping your equipment can therefore be a step to take if you wish to sell your laptop, or get rid of your storage device. You may also simply need to free up space on your equipment to save other files.

How do you wipe a hard drive? 

How do you wipe a hard drive? Several solutions are available to you. However, which one to use depends on your needs: whether or not you want to permanently get rid of your data.

Factory reinstallation

One of the solutions available to you for wiping your hard drive is to reinstall your computer. How do you go about it? Simply by restoring it to its original state. This is usually done when you have changed operating system versions (for example from Windows 7 to 10). You will therefore need to go back to the old OS in order to reinstall the new one.

This action deletes the data stored on your storage equipment. 

Formatting 

Formatting is a solution worth considering for wiping your external hard drive if you do not wish to permanently erase your data. How is this possible, given that the files are no longer available on the drive? 

Indeed, the operation only frees up the space and leaves traces of these files on the device. It is therefore possible to resort to data recovery if needed. To hope to get rid of your documents permanently, you would need to format your equipment several times!

Formatting is easy, and if you are on Windows, you can use:

  • File Explorer: by opening it on your computer and right-clicking on the required device, to format it. 
  • Disk Management: it is available from the “Start” menu. Once you find it, you will see the machine’s various devices. You will then need to click on the one you wish to format.

Command Prompt/DiskPart

How do you wipe a hard drive with Diskpart? You can access the tool from the Command Prompt on Windows. To open it, search for it in the “Start” menu and run it as administrator. Once the program is open, you need to:

  • Run the “Diskpart” command, then enter the “List Disk” command to display the devices available on your PC, so you can choose the one whose data you wish to delete.
  • To select the equipment, you need to enter the “Select Disk x” command, where x corresponds to the number of the chosen hard drive. 
  • The next step is to permanently erase the data from your equipment. To do this, you need to run the “Clean All” command and confirm it. The system then takes care of cleaning your device. The duration of the cleanup depends on the size of your storage device. That’s why you need to wait until the program notifies you that the operation is complete.

In order to use the wiped device, you must first create a partition by running the “Create Partition Primary” command, and format it by running the “format fs=x label=y quick” command, where ‘x’ represents the number of the storage device.

Specialized software

How do you wipe a hard drive using specialized software? First of all, you should know that this type of software offers excellent results. It permanently deletes the data stored on your external storage device. It works on any type of media and clears your equipment of all its files without damaging it.

Among this software, we can mention Smart Disk Checker, Clean Disk Security or even Prevent Restore, and even Active@ KillDisk.

What about encryption? 

Encryption is a good method for protecting your files. To understand how it works, you should first note that it is not used to wipe a hard drive. Rather, it serves to secure your data and prevent it from being accessed by intruders.

You may also consider encryption if you plan to keep your storage device. 

Now you know how to wipe a hard drive! Don’t hesitate to use these methods to permanently get rid of your data.