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How Can I Wipe My Entire HDD?

FuryVFuryV Member UncommonPosts: 515
in Hardware
I'm using a 1TB HDD at the moment, but I'm in the process of building a new PC.  On the new PC I'll be using a SSD (For the OS, games etc.) as well as this 1TB HDD.  When I go to install Windows on the SSD, will I get the option to format this 1TB HDD?

Thanks

Comments

  • wandericawanderica Member UncommonPosts: 371
    It should list all available drives when you install, and allow you to format or remove partitions from any of them.  You could also wait until your new install is up and running as well if you want.  Simply right-click your Windows button and click on Disc Management.  You should have some formatting options there.  Waiting until the new install is complete would give you a backup if there are any issues with your new drive, btw.  Just make sure to change which drive is set to primary boot drive in your BIOS.  Dunno if Windows 10 still gives you the old dual boot options or not.


  • syntax42syntax42 Member UncommonPosts: 1,385
    It doesn't sound like you need to "wipe" the drive.  Wiping a drive sometimes refers to forcibly destroying data by writing over it multiple times so that expensive data recovery machines are unable to read the data.  You just want to clear the file system so you can start over.  To do that, delete all partitions and create a new one.  You can easily do this after Windows is installed.
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17418/windows-7-create-format-hard-disk-partition

    If you do want to wipe a drive in the future, DBAN is a free product that will erase all data.  This is good enough to protect your privacy if you decide to sell your computer, but not good enough for business or government security.
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