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When it comes to changing hard drive or giving away a computer, simply deleting files or formatting the hard drive is not enough to ensure privacy, as data recovery software makes it possible to recover lost or deleted data easily. Being the case, you can follow solutions in this article to permanently erase all data on computer hard drive to ensure your personal data can be well protected.
Table of Contents Overview on wiping a hard drive in Windows 10 What to do before wiping a hard drive? If you view tech forums or comminutes online, you can see lots of users looking for an easy way to clean storage devices, and here is one of them: "What is the best way to clean the hard drive of my laptop? How does hard disk wiping works? What to do before wiping a hard drive? Download and install hard drive wipe software. If you plan to clean hard disk on your own, a disk wipe tool is necessary.
You should select one easy-to-use and effective tool for the task. If you want to wipe the entire computer, you should make sure the software can work on bootable drive.
Ensure battery is full. If you want to wipe a laptop, you should make sure the battery is well charged or connected to power. If power goes out during disk clearing, it might spell disaster to the drive. Backup your data to a different hard disk. When you wipe your computer, everything on it will be lost, thus you should back up any files you want to keep to another hard drive.
Remember to save software serial numbers. Those applications you bought will be lost after wiping your PC, and you need to reinstall them to new hard drive. Do not forget to record each program's serial number so that you can activate them after reinstallation. Download drivers. If you are going to reinstall operating system after hard drive is completely wiped, you may need to download necessary drivers for new system.
You can go to official web site of the device and download the latest drivers. Prepare a bootable disk. If you are wiping computer's main hard disk, you'll have to carry out the task without booting system, such as under WinPE.
Method 1: Completely wipe computer by resetting your PC This method wipes computer by using the reset feature in Windows 8. Here are steps to wipe a hard drive in Windows Step 1. Method 2: Wipe hard drive using free hard drive eraser software The secure way to erase data for good is overwriting data and refill hard disk using zeros or random data, so that nobody can recover wiped data with disk recovery software. Here are features of disk wiping function: Completely erase data on an entire hard drive or partition Permanently delete certain existing files so that they cannot be recovered.
Safely wipe deleted data without affecting existing files. Supports creating bootable USB drive so that you can use the software when computer fails to boot. Portable version is available, both 32 bit and 64 bit. Case 2: How to wipe computer system hard drive? Case 3: Wipe a single file or folder on hard drive Erasing an entire hard drive takes too much time, and you don't have to do that if you just want to erase certain existing files on the disk. I would delete everything except the windows folder.
In the year , when I left the job I had under less than amiable circumstances, I deleted everything from the one hard drive, data and programs, except mspaint. I then filled the entire drive with large. The only thing that could have remained was raw data of innocuous content, along with the file headers.
I was not concerned with such residues as those. I never heard anything about the computer after that. Does anybody have reason to believe that technique does not work? You may have gotten most of it wiped, but as the article states, there are a few places which you might have missed where residual data might have remained, for example the swap files and some files in App Data etc.
Why does this site keep mentioning a windows install disk? I have given the usual speeches, but eventually gave up. Nobody wants to bother. I never told them it takes hours, they do not care. Two computers are macs, so I know nothing about them. When that day comes, I may rub it in or not. If you are using Windows 7 or later, you can download the appropriate installation disc image for Windows the version corresponding to your current OS for free from Microsoft and burn it to a DVD or create a bootable installation USB flash drive.
It should register automatically if you have an eligible version installed. Searching Ask Leo! It takes about 30 seconds, has no cost, and I know that all the data is unrecoverable. All the platters are crushed. A low-tech solution is sometimes the best. Usually you got to press a couple of keys while booting up your system. Sometimes you can do a reset from within Windows. Then just remove my data and program drive If i wanted to remove all the data and programs I could format that drive then fill it with movies and then format it again or just leave it full of movies.
I tend not to sell or give away machines anyway. I think i still have my win3. Good article and bang on the button. It takes approx… one hour to format a hard drive and install any version of windows. This is just what I needed. I upgraded to a new PC and sold my old one.
I downloaded and ran DBAN. My only minor complaint was that it took 15 hours to finish wiping a 1. The person who bought the computer had to wait until the next day to pick it up.
Thank you, Leo! I have OEM Windows 10 fully updated. Could I just pick up on the suggestion made to use the Reset option within Windows 10? Microsoft recommend this if the clear all option is the selected all files and non original software plus all accounts are removed and one administration account is established if passing on or selling.
Is there still any concern about private data still residing somewhere which would need further action after the reset? Thanks Jonathan. A deleted file recovery utility would be able to recover the deleted files.
Running a free space wiping utility like the one in CCleaner would help with that and it would be secure against normal attempts to recover the data. Forensic recovery methods might be able to recover some of the data. This article explains how. How should I erase my hard drive before I give it away? Leo, would using a demagnetizer do the trick? Having read all this, I am glad that we have kept all of our old computers we even still have our Apple IIe.
It may be time to open a museum. When I gave my brother my old computer, I created a new user account and deleted the other account. That way most, if not all of the user-created data is deleted and recovering any traces would require some serious computer skills and he has trouble with the basics. Unfortunately, those no longer exist. I should have run a free-space wipe after that. If I keep the device I can install a new OS on the drive.
You can now schedule the task or click OK to close the Task window and then run it manually Figure B. I used Eraser to remove several files and folders. I then checked the deleted files with a couple of recovery tools. Even in cases where the files were accessible, their contents were unreadable.
File Shredder is another erasure utility that you can run from the program or within File Explorer. It can shred files, folders, partitions, and free disk space.
Download and install the program from its website. To manually remove an item, open the program and select the option to Add File or Add Folder. You can add multiple files and folders. Alternatively, open File Explorer. Select and right-click on the file or folder or multiple files or folders you want to delete.
To tweak File Shredder, open the program and click the link for Shredder Settings. Here you can control the integration with File Explorer and choose a specific erasure algorithm Figure E. I tested File Shredder by deleting various files and folders. I tried restoring some of the deleted files through recovery software, and all were unreadable. Freeraser is designed as a quick way to securely delete individual files. Rather than appear as a full-screen program or integrate itself into File Explorer, Freeraser floats on your Windows desktop as a trash can icon.
You can drag and drop files you wish to delete or select them from the icon. Customize the Taskbar in Windows What Is svchost. Best Home Theater Systems. Best Smartwatches. Best Gaming Laptops. Best Smart Displays. Best Home Security Systems. Best External Solid State Drives. Best Portable Chargers. Best Phone Chargers. Best Wi-Fi Range Extenders. Best Oculus Quest 2 Accessories. Awesome PC Accessories. Best Linux Laptops.
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