How to Erase Hard Drive Data

Ideally, users tend to permanently delete files or format entire drive volumes to destroy their confidential data so that no unauthorized person can access them. However, note that data after the deletion or formatting of the drive can still be recovered using data recovery software.

Therefore, if your hard drive is at the end of its lifecycle or you want to sell it or lend it to your friends or family, it’s better to Erase your data permanently from the hard drive. If you don’t know how to erase hard drive securely, read this blog for a comprehensive list of methods you can follow.

Why Should You Opt for Hard Drive Erasure?

Your hard drive may contain confidential files or sensitive photos, videos, or documents. Simple file deletion or drive formatting is not enough to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands since anyone with malicious intentions can recover it using a data recovery tool. This might threaten your privacy and make you a victim of data leaks or theft. Hence, data wiping from a hard drive is important.

What Does Data Erasure Mean?

Data erasure or wiping is when the existing or deleted data on the hard drive is overwritten with zeroes, ones, and random patterns. Be it a hard drive, solid-state drive, USB drive, or other storage media, overwriting ensures the data is irrecoverable, thus protecting it from unauthorized access.

How to Erase Hard Drive?

You can try the following methods to learn how to wipe hard drives to ensure that no one with unauthorized access can retrieve your confidential data.

#1 Full Format your Hard Drive

Two ways to format the hard drive are Quick format and Full Format. The Quick Format option only deletes the file pointers to make the drive space available for new data. However, the data remains inaccessible to you, which can be quickly recovered using data recovery.

Hence, if you want to wipe clean a hard drive, choose the Full Format option. It allows you to write zeroes in random combinations to the whole disk partition to remove any existing or deleted data. Additionally, it checks for bad sectors on the drive.

If you choose the full format option for hard drive erasure, your files, folders, and other data will be permanently wiped. To wipe clean a hard drive with the Full Format command, follow the below steps:

A. Full Format through File Explorer

• Open File Explorer by pressing Windows + E and then go to This PC.
• Right-click on the drive you want to full format and then choose Format.

• Now, unselect the Quick Format option and click Start. It will initiate the Full Format process.

Once done, close the window. You can crosscheck by accessing the drive whether any data is left.

B. Full Format through Disk Management

You can also do the full format of the hard drive from Disk Management. Follow the given steps:

• Press Windows + X to access Start Menu and select the Disks Management option.

• Now, right-click on the desired drive and select Format.

• Select File System, unselect Perform a quick format option, and click OK.

The hard drive will be formatted, overwriting your data with zeroes.

When to Use

Use the Full Format option to wipe data from the entire drive volume and eliminate sensitive or private data.

Limitations:

You can’t fully format the Local Disk (C:) drive volume in the Windows system. Whenever you try to do so, it will display a pop-up box explaining that this action may cause your system to stop working. It can’t erase anything from the C: Drive, which contains the most confidential information about your online and offline activities in application traces, system traces, and internet activities.

#2 Use SDelete Utility

SDelete (Secure Delete) is a Windows built-in command-line utility or software to erase hard drive data, including deleted or encrypted files. SDelete executes the DoD (Department of Defense sanitizing standard to assure you that data erased with this utility is gone permanently. Follow the given steps to completely wipe the hard drive:

• Visit the Microsoft sys-internal website page and download SDelete.
• Afterward, click on the downloaded folder, select sdelete file, and click Extract all.

• On the following prompt, click Extract. Click Browse to select Desktop and click Extract.

• Click Agree to accept the terms and conditions.

• After completing the utility installation process, open Search, type CMD, and run it as administrator.

Locate the SDelete file location. For example, if the location of the SDelete file is D:\tools, then type cd D:\tools and press Enter.

Afterward, type SDelete with the file path/location address and hit Enter. For example, type sdelete d:\ tools\mytext.txt and hit Enter to wipe mytext.txt (file name) stored in the given folder/location.

Read More – How to Use SDelete in Windows?

When to Use

If you are familiar with Command Line tools, use SDelete. You can erase one or more files and folders from your hard drive using the SDelete utility.

Limitations:

• It requires you to wipe the entire drive volume whenever you wish to erase a file. Thus, it’s not ideal if you often delete confidential files from your Windows 10 PC.
• It additionally increases disk usage by 100%, which hinders system performance, and the user would experience system lag and freeze issues while SDelete is working in the backend.
• Running SDelete on an internal drive frequently affects the hard drive’s health and life span.

#3 Stellar File Eraser

You can wipe your hard drive with the above-discussed methods. However, to ensure that your files and other data are erased beyond the scope of recovery in any way, go with the best software to wipe the hard drive, i.e., Stellar File Eraser.

It is a powerful Do-it-Yourself (DIY) software that follows data erasure algorithms approved by the US Department of Defense and other international erasure standards to acquire high data privacy. The software erases files and folders and efficiently cleans and wipes the browser history, system and app traces, etc., from your system. A Scheduler feature allows you to schedule the data-erasing tasks at a given date and time. Once set up, the Scheduler will perform the data erasure task accordingly. Read the following steps carefully to learn how to wipe hard drive data.

• Visit the Stellar File Eraser site and click the Buy Now button.
• Download, launch, and run the software on your system.
• Click Erase Files & Folders from the left pane on the main interface.
• Click on the + icon to add files and folders you want to wipe, and click Erase Now to proceed.

Once done, you’ll be prompted with a completed message for the erasure task.

When to Use

• Use Stellar File Eraser to wipe critical and highly confidential data. It ensures data destruction beyond recovery, which means no data recovery software or service can retrieve your data, including forensic tools.
• Use it to wipe sensitive data from hidden locations, maintain complete data privacy, and your data protection from identity theft, data breach, and other threats.

Wipe your Hard Drive Data Permanently!

Whether a hard disk drive or an SSD, ensuring that your sensitive data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands is a matter of concern. However, by now, you must know how to erase hard drive files, folders, photos, documents, and other data using the methods discussed in this article.  Of all the methods, we recommend you to proceed with Stellar File Eraser software. The easy-to-use software is the best way to wipe a hard drive, leaving no trace of your data behind. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How to format a USB drive?

Formatting a USB drive is quite similar to formatting any storage drive, which can be done through the Windows system by choosing either Quick or Full Format. However, to leave no chance for malicious people to find a loop to access your data, it’s recommended to ERASE/WIPE it. Learn how to format and wipe data permanently from a USB drive.

2. How can I erase my Windows data?

You can erase private data permanently on a Windows PC or laptop with the following methods:

• Erase Drive Data using SDelete
• Erase Data using WinHex
• Using Cipher with Windows PowerShell
• Use the DIY File Erasure tool

3. Can you ever entirely wipe a hard drive?

Yes. Using advanced data erasure software to erase or wipe any storage media drive, including hard disk, SSD, and USB drive, you can rest assured that your data is deleted forever.

4. Can a wiped hard drive be reused?

Once permanently erased using a dedicated file erasure software, hard drives can safely be reused in any PC or laptop.

5. I have wiped out my hard drive with data-wiping software. Can the data still be recovered?

No. Data and its traces cannot be recovered if you’ve erased or wiped out your hard drive using powerful wiping software.

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About The Author

Aruna Attri

Aruna Attri is a Senior Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. She is a technology blogger and Windows expert. She has experience in Windows data recovery domain. She loves to troubleshoot Windows issue and write technical tips and tutorials.