What does wiping a hard drive mean? To wipe a hard drive means that you have decided to erase completely all the data stored on your hard drive. To clear out any confusion, there is a big difference between deleting all data from your computer and formatting the hard drive. Deleting your data does not mean that you have cleaned your computer completely because there are shadow files and other data stored on your hard drive. However, when you format your hard drive or even delete an whole partition, it wipes it completely from all data shown or hidden. You can always recover your data through a file recovery program or through a certain hardware.
How to Format (Wipe Out) Your Hard Drive Using DBAN?
Follow the steps below in order to successfully format or wipe out your hard drive without a hassle. Please note that this may take from a few minutes to a few hours depending on how big your hard drive is:
1- First of all, you need to backup all the data you need to keep because once you start the formatting process, you will not be able to retrieve anything.
2- Next, download a free data destruction program, such as: DBAN because they can wipe clean your hard drive from outside of Windows especially if your Windows OS is installed on it. In addition, using a data destruction program is considered the easiest formatting method. Not only that, but it also allows you to use your hard drive again.
In this tutorial, we will use DBAN as an example to format a hard drive.
3- Download the DBAN software, and then save the ISO file to your computer.
4- Burn the DBAN ISO file to either a CD or a USB flash drive.
5- Restart your computer, and then insert the DBAN USB or disc.
6- When you see the DBAN blue screen, choose an option as you prefer.
7- Next, use the interactive mode to select which drives need to be wiped.
8- Almost done. Just wait for the program to erase the data from your hard drive.
9- Now, verify that your hard drive has been wiped (erased).
That’s it! You have successfully wiped all information from your hard drive. Well done!
