How do I delete everything off my old hard drive on Windows PC?

Roxhujin 

Hi!

• Once everything is properly moved to some other storage device, proceed with the software-based solutions
• To add to what was already said, those websites are quite detailed about the options Windows offers. 
  • How to completely wipe your old computer’s hard drive – Microsoft 365
  • How to Wipe a Drive on Windows 10 or Windows 11
  • if you want to reuse it, you're done.
• Then this is the fun part, you have to destroy the thing! 🪓:hammer_and_pick:️:alembic:🧲:bow_and_arrow:🔥:radioactive:
  • Will it Blend - Blending a Solid State Drive (SSD) - YouTube
  • Press vs Hard Drive
  • Hydrochloric acid meets hard disc
  • I'm joking. For the next point, be careful not to hurt yourself 🙏
  • An easier way for HDD is to drill holes in various spots of the device, you can also open it remove the platters. SSDs are enclosed in plastic, same technique, but aim for the memory chips, and it's even easier with NVMe drives. This is what is done where I work, big payment company, it's more than enough.
  • Software wiping is already efficient, if you don't feel like destroying things.

While using DiskPart's clean all command can definitely do the job of deleting everything from old hard drive, there are some downsides to consider. Let me break it down and share some personal experiences so you can make the best decision

1. Honestly, this can take forever, especially if you’re dealing with a large drive. I remember once I hit clean all on a 2TB drive, and it took a good chunk of my afternoon. If you’re in a rush, this might not be the best option.

2. While clean all writes zeros across the whole drive, for super tech-savvy folks or forensic recovery specialists, it might still be possible to recover some data. If you’re worried about sensitive information (like banking details or personal data), you might want to consider a more advanced wiping tool, like DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke), which can overwrite data multiple times. I learned this the hard way when I had to explain to a friend why her data wasn't "totally gone" after a simple wipe.

Once you're sure you've backed up everything important, it's time to make things disappear! If you’re running Windows, there are a couple of ways to completely delete everything off old drive on Windows computer.

Using Windows Reset Option:

• Go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.
• Click on Get started under "Reset this PC."
• Choose Remove everything. This works well if it’s a system drive, but you can also use this if it’s just an old drive you want to wipe.

Using DiskPart (for a hardcore wipe):
This is what I personally use when I really want to make sure everything's gone.

• Open the Command Prompt as an admin (search for it, right-click, and hit “Run as administrator”).
• Type diskpart and hit Enter.
• Then, type list disk to see all your drives.
• Find your drive in the list, take note of its number, and type select disk X (replace X with the number of your old hard drive).
• Finally, type clean all to wipe it. (Heads up: this will take a while depending on the size of your drive, but it’s thorough!)