Diskpart clean all and Full format before selling HDD?

[milesuy]

I have some old PCs and I'm planning to sell them. The PCs have HDDs and I ran the following respectively:

• format g: /fs:NTFS /p:0

• diskpart clean all

• Full format in "diskmgmt.msc", right after initializing the HDD

 

Is this enough to erase or make the data unrecoverable in the hard drive?

[MLConian]

The age-old advice I always got was: format at least 3 times. Throwing in a diskpart clean all command for good measure after that should surely scrub it good.

 

Alternatively, you could use DBAN.

[mariushm]

Download Western Digital Dashboard : https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=279

It works with all drives, not just WD ones.

 

Launch it , select drive, hit erase drive  and you're done . See review here : https://www.storagereview.com/review/western-digital-ssd-dashboard-review

you can also create a bootable usb stick to boot from it and erase drives.

 

There's also the older WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics which has a erase drive / fill with zeroes feature : https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=3&lang=en

It's more lightweight, simpler than Dashboard.

[milesuy]

2 minutes ago, MLConian said:

The age-old advice I always got was: format at least 3 times. Throwing in a diskpart clean all command for good measure after that should surely scrub it good.

 

Alternatively, you could use DBAN.

Using full format right, not quick format?

[MLConian]

@milesuy when selling a drive, always use full format. Quick format only erases the table at the start of the drive.