Securely Erase Your Hard Drive: The Fast & Easy Way Using Windows CMD

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We all need to securely erase a drive here and there. On Windows, there's a very simple way to do this. This method will re-write the entire drive with zeros, so that the underlying data is overwritten, and this makes it extremely difficult (usually impossible) to obtain any of the data.
Here are the commands:
1. Open command prompt as administrator
2. Type: diskpart
3. Type: list disk
4. Find the disk you wish to erase on the list
5. Type: select disk and then the disk number
6. Type: clean all
7. Wait several hours until it is finished
TOS:
Intro: 00:00
Whokeys #ad: 01:00
Tutorial Instructions Begin: 2:21
How To Tell Which Drive to Clean: 2:50
Select and Clean Your Drive: 3:55
What to do Once it is Finished: 4:54
Check out @easymode 6:50
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[@Hansch1986]

Nice tutorial. At work I securely erase the obsolete disks with an hydraulic press. 👍

[@foxythedestroyer1201]

This helped me get an external hard drive to start showing up again, thank you for all the help!

[@teksyndicate]

This is the easy, fast method. For all your nerds out there, the next video will be DBAN... yes I know it's better, but it's overkill for most people. Yes, "clean all" does work on SSDs, but you do not want to do it multiple times. DBAN works for SSD as well as regular HDDs... but it can drastically shorten the life of an SSD... so only use it if you're throwing it away. There are other methods for SSD that I will cover.

[@Paul_0001]

Thanks for sharing this method, is there any value in repeating the process a couple of times?

[@tux9656]

I usually use dd on Linux/BSD and had no idea Windows diskpart could wipe a drive. I learned something new. Thanks Logan! Have you considered doing a video on sdelete? It works great for secure erasing only the free space on a disk volume.

[@raynjpg]

hey thanks. i've reformatted my disks a couple times, but never did the cmd prompt method, just right click > format. i'll get around to fully cleaning my disks sometime. i'll also be waiting for your methods specific to SSD's because i don't want to shorten their lifespan.

[@kevvyg04]

many thanks straight to the point

[@manelaero7709]

Hi the command clean all will delete all data from the disk , but if we would like to clean only unused part of the disk , wich command shall we use ? thank you very much

[@tedjohnson64]

Very clever! I’ve used DBAN, but it took forever, so lately I’ve just been using a 4 lb sledgehammer.

[@PENclips]

Very nice video! Thank you

[@6ixvr]

This question if for anyone that knows stuff about PCs / laptops but I wanna download a game and to do that I need at least 100 gbs of space but I don't have enough storage on my only drive witch is my Disk C. I was wondering if I could wipe that drive and still be able to download games Nd get some of my other stuff back

[@woltergrant]

Hey Logan, I often pull out old NVRs from clients and sell them on eBay. The hard drives in them have particularly sensitive security footage. What’s the best method of wiping those before listing the NVR?

[@teksyndicate]

Dban if they are spinning disks... if it's an SSD, see if the manufacturer has a tool for secure erase.

[@dampe59]

Thanks! Great 'Help!' Video!💯

[@DrMatt96]

Thanks for showing this fam

[@Swivet22]

Thanks but I did clean not clean all will anything happen or no?

[@jbaamm]

I’m at the “Clean All” with a blinking cursor underneath. When will I know the process is finished? Thanks!

[@ledzeppelin4892000]

When it says, clean all was successful. There is no progress bar.

[@smoothboye4203]

How does this compare to cipher?

[@PEDERSTEENBERG-nv2id]

Am not sure if it is possible to wipe a hard drive cipher /w:c/

[@niltomega2978]

Is the disk still reusable after using the Clean All command? in other words, after using the Clean All command could I sell the disk and they would have no issue installing a new OS on it regardless of what type of OS ?

[@teksyndicate]

Yep, it's good to go after

[@Lord_Zore]

that was cool, ty

[@Trylen]

I always love it when my Bosses notice the blue thumbdrive on my key chain. As can't do much with a 128MB drive anymore, I call it "I've had a bad day Drive." Then I have to explain what DBan's Nukedisk is. My last day at Radioshack, the store was closing. My manager told me what we were using to blank the systems, I laughed and got out my key chain. Turns out it was 4 versions newer then the one head office supplied. I think it was the only time he called me scary. But that's to that it took half the time. Recently, as I now work at a print factory, I do IT when I have the chance and was teasing my Lead with it.

[@randr10]

What do you think of a piece of software called "eraser"? I've used this to wipe traditional drives before and you can set it up to do multiple passes so that even an electron microscope couldn't even be used to read the original data. I don't have enough knowledge about how SSD's work to tell whether this would make the drive equally secure. I've heard that they're not as easy to erase with no chance of data recovery like an old school hard drive.

[@mori7423]

why do you need some bloatware BS when you have disk part already installed?

[@ridwanahamed1820]

I accidentally pick the wrong disk part while doing this process. I stopped it immediately within a few seconds. Now what I can I do to reverse it?

[@leahiveymontalvo601]

Hi I have a question. I have a laptop that’s still under warranty but has died. I have removed the SSD from it and backed it up to an external hard drive but now I need to send the laptop to the manufacture to be repaired with the SSD reinstalled into the laptop but before I reinstall it, I would like to know how I can wipe it so none of my data is on it, even though my laptop is dead, and will not turn on? Thanks for any help you can provide😊

[@teksyndicate]

If you have it backed up, you can erase it before you put it back in the laptop. This method will work for that

[@leahiveymontalvo601]

@@teksyndicate thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate the response.!!

[@harrycash8713]

Can I boot to CD Windows 7 and erase my c drive?

[@layz5780]

What about the bad sectors?

[@dinonuggiesopdino6147]

Help I did this and now I can’t turn my pc on it keeps saying it can’t boot up

[@iyfranco151]

Can you please unbox a 8800gt

[@CarbonGlassMan]

Got daumnit! Its morning & I;m trying to get this disk to accept a clone so I did the clean all command before watching your video, I had no idea this was going to take hours,

[@iTK98]

For your next video, you should also test both method against recover tools. Theoritcally, 1-round of wipe isn't enough.

[@iTK98]

Also, SSD based drives behave differently, because the controllers may choose not to overwrite a specific nand due to wear.

[@M20AFKS]

recuva

[@wmp0074]

I've never sold or thrown out any of my hard drives dating back to 2003. I just put them in a box and I can barely lift the box now.

[@yazidbecdaigle4709]

thanks you mr undertaker

[@nonfamous]

is this better as secure erase in bios?

[@teksyndicate]

This is the easy mode... if the bios allows multiple passes, then it will be better (possibly overkill). Don't do multiple passes on an SSD unless you are throwing it away.

[@enthusiasticpaunch]

Show us the emails! Lock her up! Oof, sorry. What I meant to say was, very informative.

[@factsoverfeelings21]

Thank you. Helps a lot and makes it great you get straight to the point with perfect directions. Just advice, if you can list the process on the video as you go through it. Cause me being slow I had to rewind a few times. And when you say completely destroy it, call it the “Hillary Clinton treatment” bleach and a hammer. Hahaha

[@gennari2010]

Nice

[@alan_core]

Logan is solid.

[@Neumah]

Logan is mostly water.

[@gnarlin4964]

I wonder what the byte size of clean all is via diskpart in Windows. Wouldn't it be faster to use dd with a decently large byte size (bs)? ie. something like: sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx (whatever your device file your drive was assigned) bs=4M. I don't know if this would work in the ridiculously named Windows subsystem for Linux. Can some windows user test it? Does anyone here have any idea what the optimal byte size would be for speed with dd and it's relation to drive types and capacity? Also, if you're wiping a drive with sensitive information it's better to use /dev/urandom instead and for paranoia's sake run it twice.

[@cameronm3284]

Not a quick format... A normal format... That's writing over the drive with blank data only once (Which IS a thing) But that is getting there

[@teksyndicate]

I thought a normal format just checked the disk for bad sectors because a full rewrite can degrade the disk, especially if it's an SSD. I may be wrong because I never use that method, so I'll need to check

[@cameronm3284]

@@teksyndicate hmm. I think a normal forma- does it check the disk? I don't know myself... I think it just goes for writes though throughout the entire partitioned segment.

[@cameronm3284]

Might as well face it I'm a hard drive in a cage... 🎵

[@M20AFKS]

1. never sell hard drive 2. use hammer

[@user-hc6uo5fp8n]

Just take the drive apart and remove the pcb the spinning disks of rust and the you can recycle the pcb,metal work.

[@GubernareMens]

TL;DW: fill it with zeros or drill holes

[@sammas7440]

Before I "throw away" an old drive, I harvest the magnets from inside it and then I blow-torch the platter.

[@Nobody-vr5nl]

The "military grade" option is free too. I still have it on a CD for wiping drives.

[@ROBARVS]

What's a CD?

[@Nobody-vr5nl]

Now show the data being gone using recuva. If recuva doesn't find it, 99% of ppl want find any data.

[@albinosan4744]

😅 « wait several hours until it’s finished »

[@MGSBESTProductions]

I prefer to use Parted Magic for anything disk related.

[@commanderoof4578]

I just write the drive full of video files after a quick format (prevents fragmenting from random unmovable BA in the way) then do what you showed in the video But ultimately the only secure erase is physically destroying the drive platters after software nuking them

[@volvo09]

That's so overkill though... Unless you are a government entity being spied on, no one is going to go through the trouble of undoing a zero erase with specialty processes. The amount of time and skill that takes and the amount of drives you'd need to go through to find anything of value is such a waste of time, it just doesn't happen. I'd happily sell any of my drives after a full format / single pass erase.

[@commanderoof4578]

@@volvo09 a full format just delete the system file and checks for drive errors A simple scan with recuva will show everything still there and in 100% health and anything not at 100% health had a partial write over by another file after deletion You have to at the very least do whats in the video But writing the whole drive full video files is the only way to make sure that data cant be recovered if somehow your attempts at wiping a drive are nill It doesnt even take that long… for a 12TB HDD automatically writing the same 100GB video file will take 17 hours then do the video method and your done in about 3 days And you say its a non issue… but if your a dumbass that stores passwords on your PC or have your browser set to remember passwords or any of that crap you can kiss your accounts goodbye should someone wish to steal your shit which some people do, they make an illegal living off of buying used hard-drives and stealing bank details and email address’s and passwords (having access to your email means all of yoyr shit is now there’s enable 2FA or get rekt) anything they can get there hands on Better safe than FKed over for everything your worth

[@relaxingnature2617]

Another method is take photos with camera lens cap on. ..black photos. ..copy those photos thousands of times till the drive is full. ..those photos will over write the disk with meaningless data

[@Byrkster]

HAMMERS :)

[@armedscubasteve]

Wouldn’t DBAN be better?

[@volvo09]

There's better ways, but no one's going to be collecting your drive and attempting to un erase it after it's been zeroed... (which probably takes forever, on top of needing very high skill levels and forensic tools). Unless you think you are being spied on, then you might as well smash it.

[@teksyndicate]

Obviously yes

[@elboregojhb]

needs to be govenment proof

[@budthecyborg4575]

And if you want to wipe the OS there's DBAN.

[@RainDojo]

Greta vid but surely this is only overwriting once and that's not secure is it.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

An M.2 is an SSD, I don't know why so many tech KZbinrs differentiate between the two.

[@1nkvbvs]

M.2 is a form factor. There are wifi cards for laptops that use the M.2 as their connector. They are not the same...

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@1nkvbvs So then when specifically on the subject of storage, say "M.2 SSD" and not something like "M.2 or an SSD".

[@imothy]

dude stop promoting pirate sites selling pirated keys omfg

[@herpederpe4320]

Have you considered simply using lunix instead? Overwriting the disk with random bytes is as easy as dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=1k Plus its more nerd bonus

[@catharsis7629]

shut up linux nerd

[@juliancasa9602]

I got a government warning once about how many passes I should be doing on the disk . This happened years ago using a disk wiping software I torrented from the pirate bay. Lol