Find out how to take away and overwrite all information on a tough drive at no cost in Home windows 11

A particular parameter within the Home windows 11 Format command will overwrite all information on a tough drive with random numbers, eliminating entry to delicate data.

 

Whether or not it’s utilized in a enterprise setting or as a private system, your laptop is more likely to have delicate, personal information saved on its laborious drive. When the helpful lifetime of your Home windows 11 laptop is over and you’re able to recycle or maybe give it away, it’s vital to ensure all delicate information is eliminated fully. Home windows 11 has a software that may do that, however like so a lot of Microsoft’s options, it’s hidden someplace the place you wouldn’t assume to look.

SEE: Guidelines: Securing Home windows 10 techniques (TechRepublic Premium)

With the discharge of Home windows Vista, Microsoft launched new options for the outdated DOS holdover often known as the Format command. One in all these parameters (/P) is not going to solely format a tough drive for Home windows working system use, however it’s going to additionally overwrite all information already on the drive with random numbers. This course of successfully erases and replaces all present information with meaningless random information.

Take away and overwrite all information on a tough drive at no cost

Earlier than we are able to use the format command on this method, we first should boot our system with a Home windows 11 Restoration Drive. To create a restoration USB drive, should you shouldn’t have one already, sort “create a restoration drive” into the desktop search software and click on the suitable search consequence.

For this objective, you don’t want to incorporate system recordsdata however having an entire restoration drive for Home windows 11 readily available is at all times advisable. You will have at the very least 32GB of storage to incorporate all of the system recordsdata. Should you choose to depart out system recordsdata, all you want is 1GB. Make your choice (Determine A), after which press the Subsequent button.

Determine A

Select the suitable USB drive (Determine B), after which click on the Subsequent button. It’ll take a couple of minutes to create the restoration drive. Click on End when it has accomplished the method.

Determine B

Now, insert your Home windows 11 Restoration Drive into the PC you want to wipe with the format command and boot it utilizing the USB drive fairly than the put in working system. Probably the most environment friendly approach to accomplish that is to press and maintain down the Shift key whereas you choose Restart from the shutdown menu of the Begin Button (Determine C).

Determine C

If you attain the troubleshooting startup mode, choose the Troubleshoot | Superior Choices | Command immediate from the menu. Within the Command immediate display (Determine D), sort this command:

Format C: /P:4

Determine D

This command will format the C drive and overwrite the info with random numbers 4 instances. You may change the drive specification and the variety of passes to fit your specific preferences. On this instance, no working system recordsdata shall be put in.

Be aware: This process doesn’t meet the strictest requirements for overwriting delicate information on a tough drive, nevertheless it works effectively beneath most situations. It’s extremely unlikely that no matter information as soon as existed in your PC will ever be retrieved. Regardless, this command ought to be used with warning.