To wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information. Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not [always] wipe a hard drive. You'll need to take an extra step to wipe the hard drive completely.
When you format a hard drive or delete a partition, you're usually only deleting the file system, making the data invisible, or no longer blatantly indexed, but not gone.
A file recovery program or special hardware can easily recover the information.
If you want to make sure that your private information is gone forever, you'll need to wipe the hard drive using special software.
Important: See Tip #2 at the bottom of the page for information on a "simple" wipe using the format command in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.
Follow the easy steps below to completely wipe a hard drive:
How to Wipe a Computer Hard Drive
Time Required: This could take several minutes to several hours depending on how big the drive is and what software/method you choose to wipe it with.
Back up anything you want to keep. When the hard drive wipe is complete, there will be absolutely no way to get anything on the drive back.
Important: Sometimes multiple drives exist on a single hard drive. You can view the drives (volumes) that sit on a hard drive from the Disk Management tool in Windows.
Download a free data destruction program. Any of the first eight programs I recommend on that list will work great because they can be used to wipe a hard drive from outside of Windows, a necessary feature if you want to wipe the hard drive that Windows is installed on.
Tip: I'm a big fan of DBAN, my first pick on that list. It's probably the most widely used hard drive wiping tool. See our How to Wipe a Hard Drive with DBAN tutorial if you're nervous about hard drive wiping or prefer a more detailed walkthrough (yes, with screenshots).
When you format a hard drive or delete a partition, you're usually only deleting the file system, making the data invisible, or no longer blatantly indexed, but not gone.
A file recovery program or special hardware can easily recover the information.
If you want to make sure that your private information is gone forever, you'll need to wipe the hard drive using special software.
Important: See Tip #2 at the bottom of the page for information on a "simple" wipe using the format command in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.
Follow the easy steps below to completely wipe a hard drive:
How to Wipe a Computer Hard Drive
Time Required: This could take several minutes to several hours depending on how big the drive is and what software/method you choose to wipe it with.
Back up anything you want to keep. When the hard drive wipe is complete, there will be absolutely no way to get anything on the drive back.
Important: Sometimes multiple drives exist on a single hard drive. You can view the drives (volumes) that sit on a hard drive from the Disk Management tool in Windows.
Download a free data destruction program. Any of the first eight programs I recommend on that list will work great because they can be used to wipe a hard drive from outside of Windows, a necessary feature if you want to wipe the hard drive that Windows is installed on.
Tip: I'm a big fan of DBAN, my first pick on that list. It's probably the most widely used hard drive wiping tool. See our How to Wipe a Hard Drive with DBAN tutorial if you're nervous about hard drive wiping or prefer a more detailed walkthrough (yes, with screenshots).
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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