To wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information. Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not usually wipe a hard drive. You'll need to take an extra step to wipe the hard drive so the data cannot be easily reconstructed later.
When you format a hard drive or delete a partition, you're usually only deleting the file system, making the data invisible, or no longer actively indexed, but not gone. A file recovery program or special hardware often recovers the information.
If you want to make sure that your private information is gone forever, you'll need to wipe the hard drive using special software.
How to Wipe a Computer Hard Drive
This process could take several minutes to several hours depending on how big the drive is and what method you choose.
Back up anything you want to keep, such as photos, software product keys, etc. When the hard drive wipe is complete, there will be absolutely no way to get anything on the drive back
Download a free data destruction program. Any of the first six programs we recommend on that list will work great because they can be used to wipe a hard drive from outside of Windows, a necessary feature if you want to wipe the hard drive that Windows is installed on
We're big fans of DBAN, our first pick on that list. It's probably the most widely used hard drive wiping tool. See our How to Wipe a Hard Drive with DBAN tutorial if you're nervous about hard drive wiping or prefer a more detailed walkthrough.
Next, complete whatever steps are necessary to install the software or, in the case of a bootable program like DBAN, get the ISO image on a CD or DVD disc, or a USB device like a flash drive:
If you're using a CD or DVD, this process usually involves burning the ISO image to a disc and then booting from the disc to run the program.
If you're using a flash drive or other USB drive, this process usually involves burning the ISO image to the USB device and then booting from that USB drive to get started
Wipe the hard drive according to the program's instructions.
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