How to Erase Hard Drive with Zeros in Command Prompt

How to Erase Hard Drive with Zeros in Command Prompt
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How to completely erase your hard drives, SSDs and thumb drives? Today we will take a look at zeroing a hard drive using the Format command in command prompt. This secure erase method is free and easy to use. I will show you two ways on how to zero out your hard drive. The standard format command does not secure erase the drive and data can be recovered from that drive.
Using the command format d: /fs:NTFS /p:2 with overwrite the drive with zeros and do two overwrites on that drive and give it a NTFS file system.
Change the command to your needs
Zeroing out your hard drive with Diskpart
1. Type "diskpart"
2. Type “list disk” and hit “enter”.
3. select disk 2 (or what ever your disk number is that you want to select)
Disk 2 is now the selected disk.
4. type: "clean all"
These formats are not the most secure wipes you can do on a hard drive, for a more secure erase use something like DoD 5220.22-M but if you want to wipe a hard drive without software, then use one of the methods above.
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#SecureEraseHardDrive #WipeHardDrive #HDD #HardDrive #FormatHardDrive #ZeroHDD

[@Britec09]

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[@rizla4606]

I didn't know that i always used killdisk

[@Britec09]

Killdisk is a great bit of software

[@mclab33]

try: cipher /w eg. cipher /w:c:

[@imnotyouraveragejo578]

did you say fat32?

[@zscottcollier4837]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but do you need to be connected to the internet to perform this?

[@oneszeros1]

Nice one Brian and good to hear you specify giving away to a friend and makes it HARD to recover... obviously a forensic specialist would more than likely achieve a good rebuild but I've seen you mention DoD standards in another post here... in any country and Gov agency it's all about Policy Policy Policy which if highly sensitive will include secure destruction such as drive crushing and shredding as I know you are aware... cheers again for a great method for the home user helping out friends for a giveaway 👍

[@chester_ville_4066]

I’m trying to do this for a bit locked hard drive so I can use it for myself. I’ll post if it works. This is still good to know for future use. Thank you.

[@paulstir]

Bri your the win master nice one , thanks for that one ☝️

[@GuitarFool1569]

I have a 500GB SSD that was partitioned into 2 X 250GB. I’m trying to erase the partition but my system won’t see it as a temp partition but rather as a permanent partition and won’t allow me to make it 500GB again. Will writing the hard drive with 0’s overwrite all partitions?

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

Good video Brian! Thanks for sharing it with us.👍😎JP

[@stevenproctor3727]

Hello. Thank you for the video. I have an old 500gb HDD i'd like to erase. It has a partition on it with a seperate drive labled System Reserved D: or something similar that is only 100mb and the rest of the drive (460GB) is E:. How do I format the entire drive? If I use format e: /fs:NTFS /P:2 will that only zero wipe the E partition or the entire drive that E is on?

[@wallybe2946]

Very informative Thank-you for the very detailed, easy to follow tutorial.

[@bison345]

Thanks again Brian, so easy and straight forward.....as long as you say you're careful you get the right drive. Cheers matey. Don

[@Britec09]

Yeah its real easy to do.

[@KrissBartlett]

mine wont format Brian as its protected i pulled it out long time ago and it put protection on it so wont format it ???? tried both wont go says it write protected ive had it long time wont erase it ever done everything to try change it

[@AbbeyAdeb]

Great video, especially as I want to erase a drive using another machine...

[@capman911]

Is there a bat file that can be written to automate the entire disk formate without having to monitor the process?

[@Zendukai]

Thanks mate!

[@kevlec1947]

Thanks Brian.

[@Britec09]

You're welcome

[@fernandozornosa6398]

Diskpart is Amazing to recover an USB stick, good vídeo, each day learning from this channel,thanks

[@Britec09]

You're welcome and thanks for watching.

[@kikoskater123]

when i try clean all this happens DiskPart has encountered an error: Data error (cyclic redundancy check). See the System Event Log for more information. What should i do? i cant even mount.. i used a program to check the status and its says my SSD is in good condition i tried everything dont know what to do :/

[@JayLuisLive]

I tried the first step to wipe out windows 10 Free version off of my 1TB HDD and it worked. Out of all the guides to wipe out the HDD I researched, this method works! (It only works if you have the actual Windows 10 product key). Windows 10 Free version doesn’t allow you to use this function in command prompt. Hope I helped.

[@visuals2779]

ty im using this method for that too also do you remember how long it took?

[@CaptNemo_]

does a full format also zero out the hard drive?

[@garylollman5339]

I have a WD external passport ssd drive that is passworded protected. I haven’t been able to come up with the correct password to unlock it. Will what you did in this video by using 0’s to erase the drive work for my WD passport work? I don’t care about what is on the drive. I would just like to be able to again used the the drive.

[@WhiteArmour]

Great video! definitely didn't know this and will be applying this to all my drives and USBs. thanks again!

[@Britec09]

Glad i could help

[@kyotowolf3108]

I just did this with a ssd, will my laptop be ok?

[@mariod1485]

Hi Brian I tried what you showed with my flash drive (32G) , but it says that my drive is in raw and it wont format .....i'm stuck. Oh and by the way ....great vids Thanks

[@__M__133]

Is this safe to do to my old laptop C: disk? I want to get rid of all the data possible before giving it away

[@Ograws]

Another great video which I'm sure will come in handy someday. Thanks!

[@Britec09]

Always nice to know these things

[@cpouyioukka4519]

Can this be deployed to an AD network from a main server?

[@wayneosman8971]

Britec09, I love using "CMD", this works, "BUT", ( I use the nasty little word "but") we must be sure Windows is up to date, otherwise use a Windows boot disk to access the command line or use a third party bootable program. Windows will always find a way to update in the middle of a Command line "Clean All" or "Format fs=ntfs". We could always unplug our LAN or Wi-FI as I am learning . Still it worth it to use Windows bootable Disk or PartedMagic on a USB device. It's safer and efficiently faster at least for large hard drives. As for USB Flash drives your way is the best within a Windows OS.

[@oneofthehandlesofalltime]

Would it be possible to define a fake filesystem and format a disk as it?

[@YourGamingTeam]

THANKS you! This is just what I needed! wow

[@Britec09]

You're welcome

[@dristang]

Does this work on SSD? 1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, Windows 10 Home

[@Huny4U]

I have a question, since it's a command line you write so, can I apply it on mac terminal?

[@victorfigueroa9385]

look for the erase option in disk utility, secure erase will be there.

[@constant3927]

How do you know when the second method is done?

[@mclarenf1gtr99]

It says a "clean successfully" type of message.

[@Dominic-rt8rs]

Can I delete windows c drive doing this to erase the laptop?

[@terrymcgill43]

Nice video Brian, well done to erase hard drives. 👍

[@Britec09]

Cheers Terry

[@compton9585]

Britec the commando tech lol great video keep them coming

[@Britec09]

Thanks Compton

[@yoshizack7737]

I tried this and it said specified drive does not exist. But i checked and its ntfs. What do I do?

[@limeroundup]

Thank you! you just saved me 15 USD because I would have considered a third party program to do this for me instead of this simple command line.

[@F3arCole]

Bro please help when I do format D: /fs:NTFS /P:2 it says The type of file system is NTFS Enter current volume label for drive D

[@whiffleroar]

You have to enter the name assigned to the drive. Example: mine is New Volume (D:)... That means I type in New Volume. I think they do it so you don't accidentally wipe the wrong drive.

[@ramonaionescu4281]

IF i only have one drive and windows is on that drive, what to do?, i just want to erase the laptop

[@eminusipi]

How long is a "bit of time" for a 1T hard drive for each pass? Hours?

[@Zombie_VAV]

how long did it take you?

[@ashishsoni2431]

Really helpful

[@nakyer]

Any reason for NOT just erasing the drive once?

[@bigkevin42ful]

I have a old computer from a hospital that I got out of the trash I need codes don't work is there any way you can help me

[@cjhardknocks7040]

I heard nothing ever really gets deleted, does this really wipe a drive completely?

[@lukaandrejevic5100]

for me it doesnt say "enter new disk for frive"

[@Bluedragon-co4kb]

Awesome, thanks Brian :-)

[@Britec09]

Glad you liked it.

[@farhankhan1381]

how do you know when the diskpart successfully formats the disk

[@JayLuisLive]

Farhan Khan When it asks for the Volume label

[@mikesunboxing]

thanks brian 😍🔨🤓

[@Britec09]

You're welcome

[@F3arCole]

I got past that by putting windows but it says warning Drive D will be lost

[@mihaimeluca3]

write protected.....tried cmd, regedit, nothing worked to overwrite the write protection.

[@vedales8670]

You have the most useful content. Unfortunately, the infections on some system are beyond military grade and long standing at that. Have you heard of malware being installed through the electrical outlets?

[@grtbluyonder88]

No - fake news

[@ULTRAJSK]

No but it can be installed through iot devices, hence if your computer is on a network with multiple device like printers smart sockets/ switch’s camera devices like ring, or cctv dvr box it can also embed itself in hardware firmware and bios etc it can use ram cache to create virtual drive and use the first sectors of ssd/hd to direct u to the malicious code there are so many vulnerabilities boot kit rootkit etc these are hard to detect and remove

[@Snapoems]

can you tell what software can capture computer screen?

[@Britec09]

Camtasia Studio is what I use, there are free options available, which I have made videos on

[@zx8401ztv]

Thanks Brian :-D Dos or pseudo dos still has it's uses, i use a very simple batch file to clear chrome cache after it's been closed, chrome never really lets go of history/files. Active killdisk was the old favorite for drive blanking, most patition programs seem to have that function these days.

[@princejag]

Man Mind blowing...….

[@whiffleroar]

Just from an assumption, you can only do this to external drives. If you tried to do this on your c drive, it would probably crash because cmd is located on your local disk. Just a tip for those curious.

[@tbmoffittiii]

Can anyone confirm if this statement is accurate ? Thanks

[@ULTRAJSK]

If you boot from a bootable usb/cd with windows installation during install process hit shift+f10 it will bring up cmd then do the above from the bootable

[@xGMOGaming]

Why when I try to type commands through control prompt i get the "alias not found" message?

[@imothy]

there is another command to write zeroes to a drive without re formatting but i can't remember it!

[@MorbidCrow666]

I have been using clean all recently and it is annoying that it doesn't have any percentage showing how much has been done.

[@GregM]

With Diskpart after using the select disk I always then issue another list disk which will show with a * what disk is selected. That way it just makes sure that any subsequent commands are going to be performed on the right volume. Better to check twice just to make sure aka measure twice cut once. ;)

[@johnturner7322]

I would like to see a video that details the different file formats. I would not know what files system to chose.

[@Britec09]

Disk management will tell you what file system your using

[@amelliamendel2227]

If you don't know what you want and why you want it then just leave it what it is

[@indabells2267]

Dude after i did the one that cleans the drive with no indicator of how long it takes i closed down my computer the next day and turned it back off and now i have the no boot found problem

[@brethrin7278]

How did u solve it iv done same lol

[@indabells2267]

@@brethrin7278 so u need a usb drive with windows installed on it and you need to go to your PCs bios and upload the usb

[@Jdp313]

Hopefully this saves my 480 pny ssd that was messed up by a windows 10 update

[@machodge2021]

I also get the same problem due to windows 10. Please let me know which method was helpful to you from the video, either the disk part or the other one ?

[@Jdp313]

@@machodge2021 yes it helped I just formatted and was able to use for my new build. You can format to why it was or exfat either will work

[@mohammadshhadet9928]

Thank you.................❤️❤️💕💕❤💛💚💙

[@Britec09]

You're welcome

[@ErvilleRitcheBOkinlay]

is this can fix bad sector?

[@Britec09]

This will not fix bad sectors

[@ErvilleRitcheBOkinlay]

@@Britec09 ahh okay sir. you have a tutorial to fix bad sector sir?

[@Britec09]

Yes check my videos

[@seshurao6652]

Sir I want to know how to remove write protection of pen drive

[@wangbu8869]

I can't install window no Media driver cant use pc it been 5 day's😢

[@Jack-fs2im]

but Ccleaner will wipe the drive no messing

[@user-pg1rt8yx6f]

FILE SYSTEM FILE SIZE SAME NAME OVERLAPING FILES ? DELETE PIC PICTURE TAK DELETE AGAIN IS THIS CIPHER TOOL NESSASRY ?

[@etheriousanimation9523]

can i use the second method to nuke my hard drive

[@ashokchowdhary9574]

Sir you have described everything in your demonstration yet viewer is not so much talented as you are, try to simplify the subject in next video

[@JLMtime]

are you sure this is "ZEROing" out the drive ? were it writes all zeros

[@_httpantwon]

I don’t see no zeroes..

[@joaquinfernandesgarcia996]

My command: format F: /fs: NTFS /P:8

[@VikasSharma-dp9wz]

O % not increase format

[@johnbilliter212]

I dont think its good for ssd drives

[@Britec09]

try one of these for SSD kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYjbeqh_pph3Z6c or kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKHTanh5fJukedU

[@johnbilliter212]

@@Britec09 Ok thank you and love your channel keep up the great work :)

[@Britec09]

Cheers John

[@Rolatnor]

I hope there is no way it'll work over ip

[@davidteo03]

Please do no move the mouse unnecessary