How to wipe a hard drive on Windows 10 using command prompt

Wiping a hard drive via command prompt in Windows 10 is a pretty straightforward process,make sure you know exactly which drive you want to wipe. Just to be safe, it’s a great idea to disconnect any external drives that aren’t part of the plan. You don’t want to accidentally wipe your backup drive instead of your old storage drive.

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator:

• Click on the Start button.
• Type in cmd.
• Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. This will give you the permissions needed to wipe the drive.

2. Launch DiskPart:

• In the command prompt, type diskpart and hit Enter. This opens the Disk Partition tool that lets you manage your drives.
• List Multiple Drives: Type list disk and hit Enter. This will show all connected drives. Each drive will have a number listed next to it (like Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.). You’ll want to remember or write down which one is the drive you want to wipe.

3. Select the Correct Disk:

Type select disk X, replacing X with the number of the drive you want to wipe. (Double-check this!) You'll see a message confirming that the disk is selected.

4. Wipe the Drive: 

Now, you can type clean and hit Enter. This command will erase everything on that selected drive, making it empty but still formatted as a partition. If you want to wipe it completely, including the partitioning information, you can use clean all, but remember, this takes longer because it writes zeros across the entire disk. 

5. Confirm the Process: 

After you run the clean command, make sure you see a message saying "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk". This means you're good to go! 

6. Exit DiskPart: Type exit to leave DiskPart once you’re done.

7. Format (if needed):

If you plan to use the drive again, you might want to format it. Type in format fs=ntfs quick (or format fs=exfat quick if you want it to be compatible with both Windows and Mac) and hit Enter.