Windows 7 - Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

The answer is in your picture. You can't perform clean to the disk which hosts windows. It's like shooting your own leg.
Brink wrote it himself in the head of this post:So if you really wish to clean it then do it via the boot command prompt.

need4steer, thanks for th reply, I realized after I sent the post.

Thanks anyway!

Hello mate.


You are aware that both the clean or the clean all command will over-write data on the entire Hard Disk Drive and render Windows unusable, it will not boot at all after those commands are run?

Thanks for the warning, I'm aware that it will over-write data on the entire HD but as far as wendering Windows unusable, won't I be able to do a clean re-install of Windows 7? So I wonder what my options are at this point. Any advice?

Yes you will be able to do a clean install but you would be better off doing a clean all instead of just a clean as that (the clean) only over-writes the format configuration data and the clean all over-writes all the data on the entire Hard Disk Drive, much better IMO.

Ok, just so I'm following you here, I want to do a clean re-install. I've tried different options to convert back to a basic disk and since I'm only left with a dynamic drive with Windows 7 installed on it, it seems like my only options id to do a Clean or Clean All with Diskpart Command.

So, from what your saying, I would only do a clean all from the Command Prompt at boot? Since I cannot use the clean or clean all diskpart commands on a boot disk, I would have to do it from a command prompt at boot?

But since it won't boot after, I assume I'll be able to use the Bootable DVD and re-install, which should convert it to a basic disk, it that correct?

Boot to a command window as outlined in the link, doing either a clean or a clean all will leave the entire HDD as unallocated space, that removes all the Dynamic info and automatically converts back to a Basic disk; then just follow the appropriate tutorial for the version you have to do a clean install of Windows.


How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Thanks! I appreciate the info!

Glad I could help.

Hello, I started a "clean all" of my 1TB WD My Book External HDD that's connected via USB with a command prompt at boot.

The HDD's activity LED at the front is going up and down, but the strange thing is I can't hear any clicking or typical hard-drive writing noise at all.

I can't do anything else at the command prompt (it's stuck since I typed clean all).

Does this mean it's not doing anything or is it supposed to be silent like this? I really don't want to leave my PC on for days thinking it's writing zeros when it's doing nothing... But on the other hand I'm afraid this is normal behavior and it would damage the drive if I tried to reboot.

But it really is too silent. I know the noise it makes when I'm making backups, moving or deleting files. Unless there's a long period of waiting before it starts writing zeros or writing zeros makes no noise at all...? Wish it showed a progress status % or something...

Thanks