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Muray's avatar
Muray
Brass Contributor
Nov 14, 2024
Solved

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

I'm trying to wipe a hard drive using the command prompt in Windows 10, and I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. I want to make sure that the drive is completely erased, as I plan to either sell...
  • Xudaop's avatar
    Xudaop
    Nov 14, 2024

    I am using Dr.Wiper for erasing hard drive on my PC. After wiping, I checked with a professional data recovery tool and no file is found. That is pretty amazing.

    For secure data wiping, please check this useful guide:

    https://www.ammdiy.com/how-to-permanently-wipe-a-drive

     

K-Kimberly's avatar
K-Kimberly
Iron Contributor
May 07, 2025

Wiping a hard drive on Windows 10 using Command Prompt can be done with the built-in diskpart tool. This method completely erases all data on the selected drive, so make sure you’ve backed up important data first. Here's how to wipe a hard drive on Windows 10.

1. Press Windows + X and select Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).

2. Start diskpart app and list all drives.

diskpart list disk

Identify the number of the drive you want to wipe (e.g., Disk 1).

3. Select the target disk and clean the disk with basic wip.

select disk X clean

Replace X with the disk number of the drive to be wiped. This will wipe a hard drive on Windows 10 PC.

If you want a more secure wipe (zero out data), use:

clean all

This performs a full zero-fill pass on the entire disk (can take hours depending on size).

Warning: This process is irreversible. Do not select your system drive (usually C:) while Windows is running.

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