Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

How to "Clean" or "Clean All" a Disk with the Diskpart Command​

   Information

This will show you how to use the clean or clean all command on a selected disk to delete all of it's MBR or GPT partitions, volumes, and any hidden sector information on MBR disks is overwritten.

The data on the HDD is not written over using the clean command like it does with the clean all command below. With the clean command, the data on the HDD is only marked as being deleted instead and is only written over when new data is written/saved to the same location on the HDD next.

OR

You could use the clean all command (secure erase) to do the above and also have each and every disk sector on the HDD written over and zeroed out completely to securely delete all data on the disk to help prevent the data from being able to be recovered. "Clean All" takes about an hour per 320 GB to finish running.

   Note

• You cannot use the clean or clean all diskpart commands on a boot disk (ex: disk Windows is installed on) unless you do it from a command prompt at boot.

• Be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose on the disk that you use clean or clean all on first. It will be to late afterwards. All data will be permanently lost on the disk.

   Warning

You do not want to use clean all on a SSD disk often. Having every sector written over to 0 on a SSD can reduce it's life span faster.

Here's How:

1. In Windows 7, open an elevated command prompt, or a command prompt at boot.

OR

2. In Windows 8 and 8.1, open an elevated command prompt, or a command prompt at boot.

   Note

Be sure that you have the correct Disk #. You would not want to wipe clean the wrong disk.

A) Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type compmgmt.msc, and press Enter.

B) If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

C) Click/tap on Disk Management in the left pane, and make note of the disk # in the middle pane of the disk that you want to clean or clean all. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: For example, I would use Disk 1 if I wanted to use clean or clean all on my USB key drive.

3. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

4. In the elevated command prompt, type list disk and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will give you a list of disk numbers to select from.

5. In the elevated command prompt, type select disk # and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute # for the disk number listed that you want to use clean or clean all on. For example, I want to use one of them on Disk 1 (from step 1) for my USB key drive, so I would type select disk 1 and press Enter.

6. If the status of the selected disk # (ex: Disk 3) shows as Offline, type online disk, and press Enter to make it online. (see screenshot below)

7. Do either step 8 or 9 below for which command you would like to use.


8. To Use the Clean Diskpart Command
NOTE: (Recommended) See the green INFO box at the top of the tutorial for more information about this command. This command will wipe the HDD quickly.
A) In the elevated command prompt, type clean, press Enter, and go to step 10 below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will not take long to finish. Think of it as being like a quick format.

9. To Use the Clean All Diskpart Command
NOTE: See the green INFO box at the top of the tutorial for more information about this command. This command will wipe the HDD, and perform a secure erase. "Clean All" takes about an hour per 320 GB to finish running. It's best to only use this command if you wanted to help make sure that the data on the HDD cannot be recovered say when giving or selling the HDD to another person.
A) In the elevated command prompt, type clean all, and press Enter, and go to step 10 below. You will see the command prompt below as is until the "clean all" command is finished. (see screenshot below)

NOTE: This will take quite some time (several hours or more) to finish depending on how large the disk is since it is writing over each and every sector on it to zero. Think of it as being like a full or low level format.

10. When finished, in the elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter. Close the elevated command prompt.

11. The disk will be left as unallocated space. (see screenshot below)

12. You will now need to create a new partition or volume on the disk to be able to use it again.



That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Extend a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Delete a Partition or Volume in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Convert a FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS in Windows 7
• How to Convert a MBR Disk to a GPT Disk
• How to Convert a GPT Disk to a MBR Disk
• How to Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
• How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk
• How to Quick Format a HDD or USB Drive
• How to Securely Wipe a Hard Disk with "Darik's Boot and Nuke"
• How to Overwrite Deleted Data using the "Cipher" Command in Windows

 

[Night Hawk]

I can remember zero filling drives only 13gb or less using a dos tool and that would take just about the entire day when you mention "full format"! :shock:

Nice and simple! This will be a help when going to wipe any flash drive as well.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Brink.


I just did this on my SSD and at first I thought to make the SSD "Offline" in disk management but in the command window it said that it could not "clean all" on a disk that's "Offline"; you may want to add a mention of this in the tutorial; I'm sorry I didn't think to get you a snip of it, but it should be easy to replicate.

It only took about 15 minutes to do a "clean all" on an 80GB SSD, not bad.




Thank you!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here's the snip, I re-did it for you.

 

[Brink]

Hello Ted,

Ok. I added step 1D to help others avoid this. Thank you for finding this.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You're welcome Shawn, thank you for all the hard work you put in around here making it easy for the rest of us.

 

[need4steer]

Thanks a lot for this great post.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Need4steer, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[zezoclo]

Thanks

Thanks
but unfortunately it doesn't work with me i will give up maintaining my flash drive

 

[Brink]

Hello Zezoclo, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Could you give us more details on what part did not work for you, and include any error messages or screenshots? We may be able to help to get it to work for you.

 

[ezeht]

Ha ha

I can see some of you folks are very comfy with the command line etc. Maybe use to working with dos or maybe linox where you have to do a lot of this stuff manually. Many of us are not so smart and used say xp for its ease of use.

I have seen that thingy in w7 showing the drives. You can defrag from it too. Cant remember how I got to it now. But I was thinking, and this thread has me thinking more on it..

Cant I simply from right there. Tell it to reformat say my sataII drive with old w7 install on it. I think from right there is a more deep format than just right clicking the drive from computer and quick format/partition etc. This thing has something like it in xp. I like it it seems more deep at defrag or reformatting. I think It should be more simple for us others just to tell it to reformat from there.

And if say defraggin. You can watch it move files around etc. Where the normal defrag deally- just says- step so and so, but can not see progress etc.

You guys are very helpful. Maybe you forget sometimes, Most of us are not at your level of expertise. The simple stuff and or click and go, is way more easy for most of us.. Ha ha I have not had to mess with dos stuff since flashing bios back in the 98 days or something. I always avoid the command line if I can. I think most people do.. That is why we buy windows or xp etc. We do not use linox and are not programmers etc..

I guess what I am saying is. Maybe 3/4 of folks are in my boat. WE do not have your skills or are afraid of the command line. We need more simple ways of doing these things, and tho it might not be as deep as using the command line methods.

This looks complicated to most of us less or normal folks. Maybe if I had another pc going or had a printer I could print extra instructions for certain things. Click and go or reboot etc. Is way more easy for the most of us..

Just saying is all..

Thanks..

 

[Brink]

Hello Ezeht,

While similar to "format", "clean" and "clean all" is not the same. They do a more thorough job of wiping a hard drive than a simple "quick format" and "full format" does.

I like to try to make the tutorials as informative and simple to use as I can. Especially trying to make advanced stuff easy to do for all skill levels.

Any feedback or questions that you may have about using any part of a tutorial is always welcomed to be posted in that tutorial thread. We will be happy to help with anything that you may be having trouble with.

I use all of this to update the tutorials as needed to help others avoid the same problem or issue.

Please just let us know.

Shawn Brink

 

[ezeht]

Thanks brink.

I have to say. You folks here, are the most nice and very most helpful I have seen any place in a long time. I can figure a lot out just reading. I do ask questions sometimes tho. Can talk a lot and poor typing or grammar etc. 2 finger typing.

Ya I got it was a better clean than a normal reformat. But it is reformat a drive with my last w7 install and make it my data storage and get this install registered is what I am trying to do. I have no top secret stuff that needs to be military or better cleaned.

I do hope I have my system and drivers set up right on this new build tho. gregrocker has been very helpful in a thread I started.

You folks just try and help- This forum is great if not the very best on the net..

Thanks a lot folks..

 

[Barefoot]

Can "Clean All" be run on two separate drives at the same time? Is there a way to have it report the amount of time it took?

 

[Brink]

Hello Barefoot,

Sorry, but it can only be ran on one drive at a time.

I'm not sure if there's a way (ex: log file) to see how long it took though.

 

[shankly769]

hi this is my first post,and im due to format and clean my drive,i have 2 drives not partitioned but separated,so i use the 40GB drive just to store things,and obviously the main drive to work as main drive,

so i need to clean and what is safe the DBAN or the Clean All

hope i explained well

 

[Brink]

Hello Shankly, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you wanted to wipe those two hard drives out completly, then using the "Clean All" command would do a much more thorough job of wiping them clean. It will also take longer to run this command though.

 

[shankly769]

Hello Shankly, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you wanted to wipe those two hard drives out completly, then using the "Clean All" command would do a much more thorough job of wiping them clean. It will also take longer to run this command though.

hi,thanks,so i need to format my c drive only,the otherone is clean,so its better this tool than dban or safer?i want to be sure that after the cleanup i should install win 7 again freely and that the drive is visible,and after the clean what happenes?it asks me to install windows?

so with clean all the disc become as new?or there should be traces?

 

[Brink]

Shankly,

I do not know how well dban cleans a hard drive or not. No matter what you use to clean the drive with, it may still be slightly possible for a true professional (ex: CIA) to still be able to get some data off with the right high dollar equipment unless you burn the HDD until it melts.

When you use "Clean All" on a hard drive, the hard drive will all be "unallocated space" afterwards that you could then select to install Windows 7 on or format and use as a data drive. The average person is not going to be able to get anything off the drive afterwards other than what you install. The key is the number of writes on a drive after something has been deleted. The more writes, the less chance of it being able to be recovered.

 

[Lappy]

I'm sorry but I followed every step carefully and it just won't work... Here's a picture of the commands... Thanks for any help. I want to convert back to a basic disk, that's all. But nothing is working...