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

 

[Brink]

Hello Sfeg, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes, either "clean" or "clean all" command will completely wipe everything from a disk. If you are unable to use it from within Windows 7 because of the virus, then you should be able to at boot.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[sfeg]

Thank you for the welcome, Shawn.

Is the MBR automatically part of the DiskPart wipe, or do I have to specify/alter instructions?

Does this info from Microsoft say otherwise?
A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility
"Diskpart permits certain partition deletion operations that are blocked by the snap-in. For example, you can use Diskpart to delete MBR OEM partitions. However, these partitions often contain files that are important to the platform operation. Diskpart blocks the deletion of the current system, boot, or paging volumes and partitions. Also, Diskpart blocks deletion of the partitions that underlie dynamic disks."
Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Using the "Clean" command at boot on the disk will wipe the disk completely.

 

[sfeg]

Can anyone help on my related Q:
If both a HD and the motherboard firmware are infected by a trojan virus, does a Bios flash with updates take care of the Mobo?

But which one to do first? It seems that upon format/reinstall, the HD could get infected immediately again by the Mobo, and vice versa for the Mobo.

I'm thinking HD wipe, then Mobo flash, then HD format/reinstall... still not completely foolproof, but does that make sense or not?

This Tom's article, especially the last comment on 2/4/12, are disheartening!
Webroot Discovers BIOS Rootkit

 

[Brink]

sfeg,

That will need to be posted as a new thread in the System Security forum area since it's not related to this tutorial. This way you will get the best help for that issue there.

 

[sfeg]

I actually did post it there. Thanks. Here's a wipe/format question, though:

If I use Diskpart or another utility (such as KillDisk or DBAN), is it possible to wipe the HD first but don't format it yet? (Or do all wipes also format?)

Then I would do the format to NTFS later, after flashing Mobo.

While still unformatted, will the HD be un-writable, and thus un-infectable?

 

[Brink]

Sfeg,

Yes, when you use the "Clean" command, it will leave the Disk as blank "unallocated space" and unusable until formated.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Great stuff again I have heap of old drives I thought a format would suffice but then found I could recover stuff now this is just what I wanted.

Thanks so much

I meant to add is there a way of doing this so that I am left with just the OS intact? - handy when one hasn't got the installation disk?

 

[Brink]

Hello John,

Unless the OS is on a separate physical HDD than the one you wanted to use "clean" or "clean all" on, then no. They will wipe everything on a HDD including all partitions/volumes.

 

[mjf]

It may have been mentioned earlier but you can run the tutorial from the command prompt of a system repair disk if you can't or don't want to boot into the OS.

 

[Brink]

It may have been mentioned earlier but you can run the tutorial from the command prompt of a system repair disk if you can't or don't want to boot into the OS.

Oh no, I posted the above so he would know that "clean" will wipe the entire HDD so he wouldn't wipe his OS partition by mistake thinking "clean" would only wipe selected drive letters on HDD.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello John,

Unless the OS is on a separate physical HDD than the one you wanted to use "clean" or "clean all" on, then no. They will wipe everything on a HDD including all partitions/volumes.

Thanks Shawn thought that might be the case so will just use the drive for clean installs

Pity there wasn't a way of "saving" the OS before doing the clean, as most of the stuff I get to tidy up for folks does not have an installation disk.

 

[bpelowski]

A) In the elevated command prompt, type clean all and press Enter. 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.

Question - shouldn't my hard drive light be doing a lot of blinking after typing clean all? I followed the steps and typed clean all but now I just have a blinking cursor under the line DISPART> clean all.

 

[Brink]

Hello bpelowski,

Yep, it would be normal for there to be quite a bit of HDD activity for that drive as it's being secured erased by having 0 written over all of it sectors. It'll take a while for it to finish and until you see the "Diskpart succeeded...." message in the command prompt.

 

[mjf]

It may have been mentioned earlier but you can run the tutorial from the command prompt of a system repair disk if you can't or don't want to boot into the OS.

Oh no, I posted the above so he would know that "clean" will wipe the entire HDD so he wouldn't wipe his OS partition by mistake thinking "clean" would only wipe selected drive letters on HDD.

Ok I just meant that understanding what "clean" , "clean all" does to the "selected disk", you can use the system repair disk to perform the function.
Sorry if it confused your advice to the OP.

 

[Brink]

No problemo mate.

 

[dMuse]

Windows 7 DISKPART> clean all

[This is my first post here, just registered]

I have executed this 3 times already. It's hard to determine if anything is happening. There is no message, just a blinking cursor. Is the process going on or not? Is there a way to tell? The HD is a 640GB Samsung HM640jj. I ran "clean" and it terminated almost immediately and it said successfully, but I don't know a lot about this stuff. I'm doing all this because I inadvisedly let a party run some code on my computer with logmein123, and now I'm paying the price, spending my day (and on into tomorrow, etc.) reinstalling everything.

I could run DBAN, but if "clean all" terminates successfully, I obviously won't have to. The concern, for the most part, seems to be that there was a rootkit placed on the system, and I want to be sure that going forward my computer will be secure.

Is it normal for DISKPART> clean all to be followed by a blinking cursor for hours, no indication of progress, nothing??? Thanks for help.

 

[dMuse]

A) In the elevated command prompt, type clean all and press Enter. 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.

Question - shouldn't my hard drive light be doing a lot of blinking after typing clean all? I followed the steps and typed clean all but now I just have a blinking cursor under the line DISPART> clean all.

Ah, I guess that kind of answers my question. It may be 3 hours or more before I see a "succeeded" message. :shock: Well, I think I will do some other stuff while this is going on...

It's a hard for me to tell about notifications here. It says I'm subscribed to this thread, but how do I ensure that I will get an instant email notification? I'm not a noob to forums, but the mechanics of this one has me confused. I confess, I'm easily confused... at times.

 

[Brink]

Hello dMuse, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yep, unless you wanted to include a secure erase, then using the clean instead of clean all command would have been finished within a few moments. Eventually you'll get a completed message in the command prompt letting you know it's finished. It can take a while to finish depending on how the size of the HDD.

You should get an instant email notifcation about my reply post, and any other reply to this thread other than yours for as long as you are subscribed to it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[dMuse]

Hello dMuse, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yep, unless you wanted to include a secure erase, then using the clean instead of clean all command would have been finished within a few moments. Eventually you'll get a completed message in the command prompt letting you know it's finished. It can take a while to finish depending on how the size of the HDD.

You should get an instant email notifcation about my reply post, and any other reply to this thread other than yours for as long as you are subscribed to it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

What is a "secure erase?" Is that part of the DISKPART command? I certainly wanted to ensure that no malware etc. remains on the HD. Did a "clean all" not ensure that? Yes, I got an instant email notification when you posted, thank you. My Clean All did execute successfully after 2-3 hours.