Just replaced my old HDD.How to wipe everything off old HDD?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Y

yo0123yo

Reputable
Mar 12, 2014
23
0
4,510
I have a brand new 1TB HDD which I plan on replacing my old 500GB HDD with completely and I plan on using the old HDD as an "extra" hard drive just to store extra stuff on or whatever but it has windows 7 and a bunch of stuff on it. My question is how do I COMPLETELY delete everything on the hard drive so that it is basically how it was from the factory when empty? I have heard of programs like KillDisk and a couple others but do these wipe HDD's completely clean or do they render them useless after wiping the data on them? Thanks so much in advance!!
 
Solution
DeadRam
Copy or move your data from the 500 GB drive and use the "Format" function in Windows. You can also use Disk Management to remove the partition.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Y

yo0123yo

Reputable
Mar 12, 2014
23
0
4,510
Ok what about if the 500GB HDD has only stuff I don't really need or want to transfer over on it, will formatting it with what is currently on it still reset it to a "factory default" so I can start from scratch with that old hard drive so I can use it as an additional extra drive just to store items that I don't want on my main 1TB HDD? Thanks. The reason I am worried is because I heard that if you mess something up while trying to delete it that the HDD can possibly be rendered useless, not sure how true that is. Thanks so much! Also why would anyone choose to use KillDisk over what you suggested to clear the HDD?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

ktriebol

Distinguished
Feb 22, 2013
264
14
18,865
Formatting your old drive should work for you. If the drive has some data on it that you don't care about, just go ahead and format it. That data will be erased as part of the format process. If you are keeping the drive for your own use, a Quick Format (check the box for that at the start of the format process) should be all you need to do. If you uncheck the box for Quick Format, that will give you a normal format. There is nothing wrong with normal format, but it will take longer to get it done. Doing a normal format in Windows 7 or Windows 8 will write all zeroes on the drive, which is a fair degree of security if you are passing the drive on to someone else.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom