How to Wipe Hard Drive Before Selling in Windows 10/8/7 [Two Efficient Methods]
On this page, you'll learn two efficient ways to wipe hard drive before selling them and details about SSD secure erase:
Are you looking for an efficient way to wipe your hard drive before selling it? Don't worry. We've got you. You can learn two ways to help with that problem in this article. But first, let's figure out why we need to wipe a hard drive before selling it.
Why I Need to Wipe Hard Drive Before Selling
Erasing or wiping a hard drive before selling it greatly benefits computer users, because Windows users know that some data recovery tools can recover deleted data. Once your old data is recovered from your hard drive after you sell it, it may cause a big problem. Therefore, you must clean and wipe your computer's hard drive. The main reason for wiping a hard drive before selling it is:
- To Protect your data from malicious recovery
On the other hand, wiping a hard drive also helps you improve the writing and reading speed. However, how can you securely wipe hard drive before selling it?
This article provides two ways to help you wipe a hard drive and how to securely wipe an SSD. Let's dive in to learn the specific steps of wiping hard drives.
Wipe Hard Drive Before Selling: Qiling Disk Master
Qiling Disk Master Free is a utility and can help wipe the hard drive before selling it. It can wipe your data without doing any damage to your hard drive while maintaining its performance in a nice status. Besides, it is easy to use, so you can wipe your hard drive easily with simple clicks. It supports all Windows versions, Windows 11/10/8.1/7, as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista. Now, download it and try the following guide to safely wipe a hard drive.
We've set two options for you to wipe data. Choose the one you need.
Option 1. Wipe Partition
- Choose "Wipe Data" in the "Tools and utilities" tab page.
- Select the partition you want to erase data from by click the partition, set the time for which you want to wipe your partition.
- Click the "Proceed" to wipe the partition.
Option 2. Wipe Disk
- Choose "Wipe Data" in the "Tools and utilities" tab page.
- Select the HDD/SSD by click the head of disk. Set the number of times to wipe data. (You can set to 10 at most.)
- Click the "Proceed" to wipe the disk.
However, what else can Qiling Disk Master do as a professional disk manager? Let's continue to read the paragraph below.
What Else Can Qiling Disk Master Do
As mentioned, it is a useful tool to help manage the disk partition for Windows users. Its main features are as follows:
- Wipe external hard drive
- Windows 11 wipe hard drive
- Shrink/extend or move partitions
- Erase or wipe free space SSD safely
- Format and reformat a hard drive or external hard drive
Download it to help if you are facing disk management issues. It won't let you down.
Wipe Hard Drive Before Selling: Diskpart Commands
You can also choose Diskpart commands if you feel reluctant to install a third-party tool. Diskpart also allows you to wipe a hard drive, but you must be careful when you type the commands. Or it may cause you data loss issues. To wipe the hard drive before selling, here are the steps:
Step 1. To open CMD, press the Windows icon + R at the same time and type "cmd."
Step 2. Type diskpart to open Diskpart.exe.
Step 3. Hit enter each time you finish typing one command below:
- list disk
- select disk 1 (Replace 1 with the correct disk number)
- clean
Then, you have wiped your hard drive successfully. Do be careful when you type the commands to avoid data loss. By the way, there are some errors you may meet when you use Diskpart:
Conclusion
Qiling Disk Master is a great hard drive eraser that can help your data by completely erasing your disks while helping your HDD/SSD maintain optimal performance. It's more than just a hard drive wiper. You can also format, move, merge, expand, or shrink your partitions. Download it to help.
Of course, you can also use commands to erase your hard drives but enter your commands carefully. Otherwise, you can easily lose data. Continue to read if you have other problems with wiping a hard drive.
FAQs About How to Wipe Hard Drive Before Selling It
This part lists some other questions related to today's topic, which may enlighten you if you get other questions.
1. Should I wipe my hard drive before selling?
Yes, you should. Because even if you delete your data on this hard drive, it may be recovered by some data recovery tools. To guarantee your data safety, you must wipe your hard drive before selling it.
2. Does wiping a hard drive remove everything?
Yes, wiping a hard drive means you remove everything on your hard drive. Besides, don't wipe it frequently if it is an SSD hard drive. Wiping it frequently may shorten its lifespan.
3. What is the most secure way to wipe a hard drive?
There are many ways to wipe your hard drive, but you'd better choose a professional wiper such as Qiling Disk Master. Diskpart commands can help you wipe a hard drive, but they may easily cause data loss.
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