How to wipe clean my external harddrive?

wazza

Took the harddrive out of my dead laptop and put it in an enclosure. Connected it to my new laptop and copied any important files etc.

Originally the harddrive had two partitions: a recovery and C drive. The C drive was further split into two drives. The harddrive now has 3 partitions. What i want to do now is to remove all data and remove the partitions. If it is possible like to create two partitions.

Will be using windows 7.

Any advice?

robmar0se

Hi, it is quite simple as the tools exist in windows - goto the control panel, then admin tools, then computer management, then dsik management - there you will see a schematic of the hard drive - just right click and then from the menu choose delete to remove the partition(s). Creating new partitions and selecting their size is just as easy.

If you want to remove any previous traces of data etc, you can use the free Clean Disk to do that (there are other programs) from here http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Clean-Disk-Security.shtml

poppellerant

Fairly easy from within Windows 7. Start menu > In the search box, type in Computer Management and press enter when it's found Computer Management > With the Computer Management now open, in the left hand pane click Disk Management and wait about 20 seconds for the data to appear in the middle.

Now in the middle pane, at the top you will have a list of drive letters, and the bottom should show a slightly more graphical layout of physical disks and which drive letter/s are assinged to which disk. You need to be 100% that you have the right disk before making any changes - check, double check, then triple check!

I'm assuming you have a harddrive and CD/DVD drive. So that's drive letters C: and used, therefore I will assume drive letter E:, F: and G: are the drive letters for your external disk. I will also assume that Disk 0 is the harddrive running Windows 7 to perform the task, and Disk 1 is the exteral disk.

So if you look at the bottom you can see Disk 1. Then to the right of it, you can see E:, F: and G: spread across filling the disk. It's very much a case of left clicking each partition to select it, then right clicking it and deleting the volume. Once they are deleted, you just need to create a new volume and format it.

Figment

As one of the partitions is a recovery partition, it probably won't have a drive letter assigned but beware as this will also be the case on the internal drive of your new laptop!!!
Drive 0 is usually the internal hard drive, although if it were a desktop with more than one internal hard drive it is possible (although unusual) to have the operating system on Drive 1

Easiest (foolproof) way to ensure you get the correct disk is to run Disk Management with the USB drive unplugged and note the drivesthat are listed. Close Disk Management, plug USB drive in. Open Disk Management again and you will see the additional drive.

But as stated above Check. Then check again. Then question your decision. Then check again before committing.


Did I mention to check?

wazza

It is a 80G hard drive. First i am going to delete volumes as stated above. Then create volume and format it. Any recommendations what size partitions, how many partitions? Also format in FAT32 or NTFS?

Just going to use it to store pics, some files and few movie clips from mobile/camera etc

Was thinking 20G partitions

wazza

poppellerant wrote: »

...

I'm assuming you have a harddrive and CD/DVD drive. So that's drive letters C: and used, therefore I will assume drive letter E:, F: and G: are the drive letters for your external disk. I will also assume that Disk 0 is the harddrive running Windows 7 to perform the task, and Disk 1 is the exteral disk.
....

The external drive appears as Disk 1 as you say with partitions F,G and H

closed

Unless you have a specific reason to split up an external drive, one big (NTFS) partition is more useful - if you don't want to recover any data or recovery partitions, delete the partitions, and quick format it.

If you want to use it for backing up another machine in future, ie disk imaging software, then smaller partitions will probably cause you problems, splitting things up can be done with folders instead.

closed

The OP has stated they are going to reuse it, so not really relevant.

Deleting the partitions, followed by a Full format in windows7 or vista will make data unrecoverable with software, as will a ccleaner free space wipe and many other similar tools.

DELLBOY_2

i hate the idea of using a secondhand drive or indeed a computer that is secondhand just in case someone has downloaded things ....

James123_2

CCleaner has a 'secure' tool which allows for various levels of security - in case the drive is ultimately sold on in the future. I'm not sure of its credentials, but it does seem to have a strong following. The last clean sweep I did took 24 hours using 'Level 3' of this tool. The HD was infinitely faster after this too.
Not sure if this helps.

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

wazza

I plan to reuse my harddrive.

I will split the drive into 20G and 60G partition

Will format it in NTFS