Hard drive wipe

[RGBisKey]

Hi all, I recently got an SSD for my system. After cloning my old HDD to my new SSD I'm left wondering how to completely wipe the HDD. Any tips or suggestions on how to wipe ONLY the HDD. Will I need to have my SSD unplugged while I do it? Thank you!

[Acid Panda]

If you wont be using the HDD i suggest a hammer.

 

If not windows has a built in utility, that will take a few hours

[homeap5]

Wipe for sale? Or just delete everything?

Format drive should be enough for your personal use. Or even do nothing and delete folders that you don't want to keep.

If you want to sell this drive and it contains sensitive data, use TrueCrypt 7.1a or VeraCrypt and format with full encryption.

 

You cloned system, so boot partition was cloned too, but just in case, before you format drive, unplug it and boot using only ssd. For check is everything work (your current system).

[Slottr]

Can use disk management in windows, diskpart in cmd, etc.

[RGBisKey]

1 minute ago, Acid Panda said:

If you wont be using the HDD i suggest a hammer.

 

If not windows has a built in utility, that will take a few hours

I do still plan on using it. Also, does the windows utility let you select what drive to wipe?

[RGBisKey]

1 minute ago, homeap5 said:

Wipe for sale? Or just delete everything?

Format drive should be enough for your personal use. Or even do nothing and delete folders that you don't want to keep.

If you want to sell this drive and it contains sensitive data, use TrueCrypt 7.1a or VeraCrypt and format with full encryption.

I plan on still using the drive but I'd like to delete everything from it

[Acid Panda]

1 minute ago, RGBisKey said:

I do still plan on using it. Also, does the windows utility let you select what drive to wipe?

it will wipe the whole drive

[RGBisKey]

2 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Can use disk management in windows, diskpart in cmd, etc.

Do I need to unplug the SSD for the windows utility or does it let me select a drive to wipe?

[homeap5]

Select drive D (your old C) and quick format. This is few seconds operation.

 

You can also use MiniTool Partition Wizard for delete all partitions from selected drive and make single big partition.

[Slottr]

Just now, RGBisKey said:

Do I need to unplug the SSD for the windows utility or does it let me select a drive to wipe?

Would be difficult to do so without windows, so no- don't do that.

 

Yes, it will

[RGBisKey]

1 minute ago, Slottr said:

Would be difficult to do so without windows, so no- don't do that.

 

Yes, it will

Oh.. uh well now I feel real dumb

[Slottr]

Just now, RGBisKey said:

Oh.. uh well now I feel real dumb

Nah its all good, the little things are easy to look over

[homeap5]

My advice is - just leave it as is. Delete only personal files from it, but leave old system. Who knows when you'll need it - maybe some day something wrong happend with your new system (virus or something) and you'll have ready-to-boot old system. If it's big drive, there will be not so big difference for you. You can still use this drive as second one.

 

And what is wrong with download MiniTool Partition Wizard? Is more easy to use than disk management from Windows and you can see every changes before you click "apply". Select every partition on second drive, click delete, then create new partition, format it as ntfs and click APPLY to complete all operations. If you really want to delete everything from HDD.