Go to the Options menu in the upper right corner. The software will find any drive connected to your device, so be careful to select the one you want to erase. Observe that if your hard drive is damaged, you may need an HDD recovery expert’s help.Ĭheck to accept the Agreement terms and then click the Secure Wipe option.

To use it, download the SalvageData recovery software and double-click it to execute the installer. SalvageData software allows you to securely wipe your internal and external hard drives as well as any other storage device. How to wipe a hard drive using the SalvageData Secure Wipe toolĮven though you can wipe your internal hard drive using Windows, this is not an option for external drives. Enable the Clean Data option before confirming. Then, choose the option Remove everything and click Change settings. On Windows 11, go to Settings > Update > Recovery > Reset PC. On Additional Settings, click Change Settings and enable the option Clean Data and Delete files from all drives. On Windows 10, go to Settings > Update and Security > Recovery.Īfter that, find Reset this PC, click on Get Started, then Remove everything. You can wipe your hard drive using Windows tools. Reasons you might need to wipe your hard drive Since reformatting the hard drive and deleting all files on it don’t erase it forever, if you want to guarantee the data is no longer accessible and impossible from being retrieve, you must wipe your hard drive.īefore disposing of your old hard drives and SSDs, it’s important to wipe them. That’s because when you delete a file you reassign the space it was instead of removing it. Unless your file has been overwritten, you’ll be able to retrieve it. You can restore deleted files using data recovery software, for example. Only if you safely wipe your hard drive will you accomplish the complete and forever erase of its data. That’s because you can recover these files. Deleted and formatted drives are not the same as the wiped drives. If you have a hard drive or SSD you don’t use anymore you can’t just delete everything on it and pass it to a new owner.

Clearing a hard drive