- A drive can be used on any type of computer - PC or Mac. But in order for the computer and drive to communicate with one another, the drive has to be formatted with the correct file system. This article explains about file systems and provides instruction to format a drive on Windows and Mac.
- Command to Format Drive in FAT32. With a single line command, you can format large drives in FAT32 format. Since we are using the command prompt, you need to know its drive letter before formatting the drive. This is because we need the drive letter to target the drive. First, plug in the USB drive and open the File Explorer.
Steps to Erase Hard Drive in Windows 10
- Download SDelete utility from Microsoft Internals website
- Extract the compressed folder on the Desktop
- Press and hold the ‘Shift’ Key and right-click on the ‘Desktop.’
- Choose ‘Open command window here.’
- Now type sdelete –p 5 D: and press the ‘Enter’ key
- You need to wipe entire drive volume every time you wish to destroy a deleted file. Thus, it’s not ideal if you often delete confidential files from your Windows 10 PC.
- Also, you can’t delete an existing file. It also increases disk usage by 100%, which hinders system performance, and the user would experience system lag and freezes while SDelete is working in the backend.
- Running SDelete on internal drive frequently also affects the hard drive life.
- Install BitRaser File Eraser in your Windows 10 PC
- Launch the software and go to the ‘Settings’ tab
- Select the data erasure algorithm and verification method from respective drop-downs. Click the ‘Apply’ button
- Click the ‘Home’ tab
- Click ‘Erase Deleted Data’ in the left pane, and then select the drive volume
- Click the ‘Erase Now‘ button at the bottom right and then click ‘OK’ when the prompt appears
- Click ‘Erase File and Folders’ in the left pane
- To search for a specific file, click on Search & Erase link on bottom side of the screen.
- Alternatively, you can also add the to-be-erased files by clicking on Add items button (bottom right side of the screen)
- Once the selected file displays on the screen, click “Erase Now”
- Delete Unused space
- Select the drive volume
- Click the ‘Erase Now’ button at bottom right
How To Format Hard Drive For Windows 10
How To Format Hard Drive For Windows 10
Conclusion
Before selling, reallocating, returning, donating, or sharing your storage media, PC, Laptop, or any other media that contains or contained private or confidential data, always wipe it with the help of a secure erasure tool such as BitRaser File Eraser.
A full format may protect the data from basic data recovery attempts but specialized data recovery software and services can get back ‘traces’ of data from a fully formatted drive. Thus, you need to use a software that can erase data as per international data erasure standards such as DoD 5220.22-M. to permanently destroy data from Windows 10 PC.
Use BitRaser File Eraser that supports 17 international data erasure standards with two-verification methods that simultaneously check and confirm data destruction beyond recovery.