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

You're welcome Koala. That's great news.

Hi Brink,

I read through the steps and am about to try. I also read through the other questions but didn't see my question anywhere - I read that low-level format could possibly damage your hard drive these days that's why people to 'zero-fill' which I believe is what you are describing. So in short - will this process work on any type of computer (HD)? I have HP with SATA hard drive.



Thank you for your time!

Hello Stefsj,

Yes, you could use either the "clean" or "clean all" command safely on any SATA HDD without any damage except for the data and partitions on them.

Thank you for the quick response! I am also trying to flash my BIOS because I am afraid the rootkit might have gone there (or came from there). Do you recommend flashing the BIOS before I do this clean all procedure?

And one more question - is this clean all command that comes from Windows the same as 'wiping' the disk using one of the softwares like DBAN or KillDisk?

I opened a topic but haven't got particular responses on that and that's why I wanted to ask you. If you think this might get off topic here you can respond to my other post:
BIOS virus and custom format from Windows 7.

Stefsj,

I'm not sure about your BIOS issue. I wouldn't recommend flashing it if youe decide to until you are sure that your system is clean, so it would probably be a good idea to wipe the HDD clean first to take care of that part.

The KillDisk program says it does a 1 pass secure erase. That would be the same as the "clean all" command.

The DBAN program didn't say how many passes it does, so it may or may not do a more thorough secure erase of the HDD.

However, the "clean all" command should be more than sufficient to delete your HDD and any malware that may be on it. Secure erasing and the number of passes (more the better to a point) a HDD really is only important if you wanted to make sure that the data on the HDD could not be recovered. Especially say if you were selling ot giving it to someone else.

Shawn

Your tutorial is so easy to clear. Brilliant.

I intended to increase my system memory from 80GB to 160GB. There are both IDE hard disk.

At first I created a backup image and system repair disc. Before I restore it to the bigger hard disk, I am thinking to do wipe off any remaing data on it. So I performed CLEAN ALL. What I encountered is it took longer than expected. It has been running for more than 10 hours yet it still running with a blinking cursor after the CLEAN ALL

Is there something wrong? Can I interrupt the process?

Do restore the system recovery, is it advisable to do partioning to System Reserve and specif partioning?

Thank you for your advice.

Hello cmlow, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It can indeed take a long time for the "clean all" command to run. Yes, you can interupt if you like. However, if you do, you'll need to run the "clean" command, but it will finish quickly though. Afterwards, you'll be ready to format the HDD and do a system image recovery to it.

Shawn

Thanks for your swift reply.

Just to make my understanding correct. When I do System Image Recovery, it will perform reformatting again? Is it correct?

If that is the case, there is no point to do Clean all. Is it worth to continue or just interrupt the clean up?

If I were to cancel the clean all, what steps shall I perform?

Once thank you very for your help.

That's correct, when you do a system image recovery, it will format the HDD first.

"Clean All" is mostly for when you want to secure erase the HDD to help make sure that the data cannot be recovered say when you sell or give away the HDD to another person.

"Clean" is good for when you just want to quickly wipe the HDD to do say what you wanted to do.

You could close the command prompt, or restart the computer to stop it. However, you will need to run the "clean" command on it since it was interrupted.

Thanks heaps