Drive wipe free downloads

Follow the instruction to learn how to perform a hot swap. Step 4. After that, you should be able to erase external SSD securely. Tips : You can initialize external hard drive after erasing if you want to. It is rather easy to wipe external hard drive in Windows 10, but to do that with worry-free result, some professional tools are necessary. Apart from wiping hard drive, you can also reformat a hard drive to the status you like with this software.

Wipe External HDD vs. Freeware to Secure Erase External Hard Drive in Windows 10 Physical destruction method via sledgehammer works for data wiping yet environment-unfriendly. Still Need Help? Have your problem been solved? Click Erase Disk at the top of the app.

Click Start. Cllick Ok. Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings.

Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Back up important data. If there is data on the drive you need to keep, make sure to save it on another hard drive. Connect your external hard drive to your computer. Most external hard drives can be connected to your computer using a USB or firewire cable.

In some cases, an external hard drive may need to be plugged in using an AC adapter. This icon is used on wikiHow as fair use because it is being used to provide how-to instructions. Click This PC. It's in the sidebar menu to the left. This displays all external and internal hard drives connected to your computer. If you don't see "This PC", look for the name of your computer.

It's next to an icon that resembles a computer monitor. Right-click your external hard drive. This displays a pop-up menu next to the hard drive. If your external hard drive has a specific name, it will be listed in File Explorer.

Otherwise, it may be listed as "USB Drive" or the make and model of your hard drive. The amount of space each hard drive has is listed below the drive name in File Explorer. Right-click the hard drive with the amount of space that matches your external hard drive. Click Format…. After that, select which method you want to use and press the Space key to confirm. Step 6. Select the drive you want to wipe and press the Space key to confirm. Step 7. Press 10 to start the erasure process.

To be specific:. The disk wipe process is realized by quick commands, which makes many users feel difficult to operate. And the erasure process does not have any confirmation, greatly increasing the data loss risk.

In addition, this software is no longer updated since June , and some users report that the compatibility is in decline. Then, which is a better alternative for DBAN? If you want a command-line tool, diskpart clean all commands can be a great choice.

Diskpart is a command-line disk partition utility for Windows system, and you can use it to create partition, delete partition, merge partition, etc.

To delete all data on a hard drive, you can use diskpart clean all commands with the following steps. Wait for a while, you will see the black command prompt window, type the following commands and then press Enter in order.

Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy.

Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings.

Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Darik's Boot and Nuke is free software that supports multiple disk wiping methods.

It operates from inside the computer's RAM, which allows it to thoroughly scrub the disk at a remove. This method will allow you to reuse your hard drive.

Click Download. It's in the upper-right corner of the DBAN website. This takes you to a download page for DBAN. Wait a few seconds for the download to start.

By default, downloaded files can be found in your Downloads file. Download and install Rufus USB boot only. Scroll down and click Rufus [version number]. Open the Rufus ". Make sure it has no data you want to keep. Open Rufus. Use the drop-down menu below "Devices" to select the USB drive. Click Select to the right of the drop-down menu. Click Start. Click Ok to confirm that it will erase all data on the USB.

On an Apple Mac, you may need to hold down the "C" key while the computer starts up. Select the drive s you want to wipe and press Spacebar. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard the highlight the drives you want to erase and press the spacebar. Hard drives slated to be wiped will say "Wipe" to the left of them. Be careful not to select a hard drive you want to keep. You will not be able to recover data from the hard drive once it's deleted.