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

 

[need4steer]

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:

You cannot use the clean or clean all diskpart commands on a boot disk (ex: disk Windows 7 is installed on) unless you do it from a command prompt at boot.

So if you really wish to clean it then do it via the boot command prompt.

 

[Lappy]

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

Thanks anyway!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

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...

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?

 

[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...

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?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

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.

 

[Lappy]

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?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

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

 

[Lappy]

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!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

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.

 

[Kusuri]

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

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Kusuri.


You will get a blinking cursor while the clean all is working, about an hour per 300GBs.

click to enlarge


... and this when it's finished.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Kusuri.


You will get a blinking cursor while the clean all is working, about an hour per 300GBs.
click to enlarge


... and this when it's finished.

Thanks, then it's not working for me for some reason... Should I use Western Digital's Write-Zeros instead?

Yes, give that a go and keep me informed mate.

 

[Kusuri]

Hello Kusuri.


You will get a blinking cursor while the clean all is working, about an hour per 300GBs.click to enlarge


... and this when it's finished.

Thanks, then it's not working for me for some reason... Should I use Western Digital's Write-Zeros instead?

Yes, give that a go and keep me informed mate.

Hmm I had the drive as unallocated space, so it seems it was working after all somehow. Hope I didn't screw anything up?

Well, at least I get a progress bar with a timer now though, 11 hours.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If it shows as unallocated space, that's what it shows as after the clean all finishes.

 

[Kusuri]

If it shows as unallocated space, that's what it shows as after the clean all finishes.

Yeah, but I don't think it had finished all the way though, since 11 hours hadn't passed.

 

[Brink]

Hello Kusuri,

If you got a "succeeded....." message in the command prompt like in step 7, and you show the drive as "unallocated space" as in step 9, then it has finished. All you would need to do now is step 10 to format the "unallocated space" to be able to use it.

 

[Kusuri]

Yeah but there was no message. I think it was still cleaning, 11h hadn't passed like WD Diag says it'll take now. Still, it really is silent. When I reformatted it showed 118 mb already in use but it was empty. Is that normal?

 

[Brink]

11 hours is a long time for this. What are the rest of your system specs? If you have a lowered powered system, then it could take longer than usual.

If you open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc), does it show the HDD as unallocated space? Could you post a screenshot of this and of the progress bar prompt with more details (if available) expanded?

 

[Kusuri]

11 hours is a long time for this. What are the rest of your system specs? If you have a lowered powered system, then it could take longer than usual.

If you open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc), does it show the HDD as unallocated space? Could you post a screenshot of this and of the progress bar prompt with more details (if available) expanded?

EVGA X58 SLI
Intel i7 920
Corsair HX1000 PSU

The ext HDD is connected to its own power though. It's also connected via USB and write-cache in it is off.

It shows as RAW. I had done a quick reformat and restarted the Write-Zeros, but with Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Still is it common for these ext HDDs to have 118 MB already used after format? I can't remember how it was the first time I got it.

 

[Brink]

RAW indicates that it's not finished yet since it should say "Unallocated Space" instead.

Since you are doing this from a program, then it could take longer since it may do more write passes. Plus, it will take longer via a USB connection since it is slower than a internal SATA or external eSATA connection.

Is the drive's activity light still on or blinking?

If you look at the "Current Sector" area in the progress dialog box, is the sector count increasing on the left side to indicate that it is actually still running?