Afile recovery programor special hardware often recovers the information.
Back up anything you want to keep, such as photos, software product keys, etc.
When the hard drive wipe is complete, there will beabsolutely no wayto get anything on the drive back.
Back upeverythingyou want to keep; sometimes several virtual drives share space on a single physical hard drive.
View the drives (volumes) that sit on a hard drive from theDisk Managementtool in Windows.
Download a free data destruction program.
We’re big fans ofDBAN, our first pick on that list.
Wipe the hard drive according to the program’s instructions.
Most data destruction programs offer several methods.
If you’re curious about the effectiveness or methods used to complete the wipe, seeData Sanitization Methods.
Plug in your laptop or verify the battery’s fully charged.
In other words, a very basic hard drive wipe is performed during a format.
If asingle write-zero passis good enough for you, consider your drive wiped after a regular format.
If you want something even more secure, follow the hard drive wipe instructions above.
This is a wipe of just the partition you’re formatting.
Is Shredding Files What You’re Really After?
See ourlist of free file shredder software programsfor programs that “destroy” individual files on an as-needed basis.
The purpose of this is to ensure that the files you’ve already deleted are actually deleted for good.
SeeWipe vs Shred vs Delete vs Erase: What’s the Difference?
Connect the drive to your system, openFile Explorer>This PC, and grab the external drive.
Right-click and selectFormat, click a file system, and follow the prompts.
Toreinstall macOSafter you’ve wiped the drive, initiate the macOS Utilities app, clickInstall macOSand follow the prompts.
