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]

You're most welcome.

 

[ghos3t]

will both my drives be cleaned

hello on my pc I created two partitions one for my windows 8.1 C drive 150 gb and another to store all my data D drive 350 gb,I accidentally shut down the pc directly from power supply now my pc is not booting and when i try to reinstall windows no drives are detected, after searching a lot I believe my MBR has become corrupted, I want to follow these steps you have written to delete my corrupted mbr and reinstall Windows 8.1 or windows 7 fresh into my 150 gb c drive while not losing my D drive data, so if I use the clean command can I individually clean only my c drive or will both drives be cleaned.

 

[Brink]

Hello ghos3t, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm afraid that if you run the "clean" or "clean all" command on the disk, it will wipe both partitions and leave the disk as unallocated. It affects everything on the hard drive.

If you don't have another computer to connect the drive to and back it up on it, then you can use either tutorial below to back up with to a separate hard drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93347-copy-paste-windows-recovery-console.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/256518-peppermint-live-cd-dvd-usb-create-emergency-backup.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[soewhaty]

Hi and thanks for the tutorial. I just did a 'clean all' on a 1TB internal HDD. And then when I went to device manager/disk management in order to assign the hdd's unallocated 1tb space I was given this option:

Use the following partition style:
MBR
GPT

Note GTP is recommended for disks larger than 2TB [mine is 1TB as I said], disks used on Itanuim-based PCs and wont be recognized by prev. versions of Win

I think before I did the CLEAN ALL it was MBR, not GPT, but I am not sure. As I said, it is an internal SATA2 3gb/s HDD, which used to be my main HDD partitioned with OS partitions and storage partitions. Now an SSD is my OS drive and the 1tb HDD in question is inserted in the 2nd slot in my notebook to be used only as storage. That's pretty much the full story. So which one of the 2 options to choose? It makes sense to be the MBR option but it never hurts to ask.

PS
Sorry if I am repeating a question already asked, but I could not find the answer so far.

 

[Brink]

Hello soewhaty,

For Windows 7, it's best to use MBR for the installation disk.

 

[soewhaty]

Thanks for your reply! I am not sure what you mean in this context when u say 'installation disk'. As I said my configuration is the following - Win7 Pro x64 on a notebook PC with 2 hdd/ssd slots. In one slot I have an SSD where my OS is and in the 2nd slot I have the internal HDD on which I just performed a 'clean all'. The HDD is only going to be used for storage. There is not going to be any operating systems installed on it. I hope that makes it clearer now. Sorry if there was any confusion.

1. That said, what is the answer now? MBR or GPT for the HDD when 'device manager/disk management' asks me the following

Use the following partition style:
MBR
GPT

Note GTP is recommended for disks larger than 2TB [mine is 1TB as I said], disks used on Itanuim-based PCs and wont be recognized by prev. versions of Win

2. Does it matter which OS we are talking about in this context? In other words, is the answer to question #1 the same for Win7, Win8, Win8.1 and say Win10?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Brink]

"Installation disk" is the disk that Windows 7 is installed on.

If you were using Windows 8, then you could use GPT with UEFI if you like.

Since this is only a 1TB drive, I would still say use MBR.

 

[soewhaty]

OK, the internal HDD in question is, as I already said in my initial post, not the one where any OS is going to be installed ever. And it is 1TB in size. It is only an internal hdd for storage. Those are all the prerequisites.

For all versions of Windows that I ever use [Win7, Win8 and Win10, etc] I am only going to use that internal HDD for storage and not for installing OS onto. I repeat, it is an internal HDD, cos my notebook has 2 slots. So with that in mind, I thought it should be the same choice in all Windows editions, but it surprises me now to see you're saying that in Win7 I should have the hdd as MBR and in Win8 in GPT. I mean, after all... it's the same internal hdd we are talking about here, same size and same use it will have. Why would I have it MBR in Win7 and GPT in Win8. That is what you are saying as far as I understand.

Thanks again

 

[Brink]

Yep, use MBR.

 

[soewhaty]

Thank you for the reply but from all I wrote [and asked] one would expect a deeper explanation from you as to why you recommend MBR in Win7 and GPT in Win 8. After my little research I figured that there is a different way at looking at things. GPT is newer than MBR, and if GPT should ever be used on a partition meant for an OS, then Windows can only boot from GPT on UEFI-based computers running 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and corresponding server versions. All versions of Windows 8.1, 8, 7, and Vista can read GPT drives and use them for data, but, as mentioned above only the 64-bit versions on uefi based pcs can boot from gpt drives.

Bottom line for me [correct me if I am wrong] is that if the hdd/sdd in question is not going to be one to boot from, but just used for storage, then only the size would determine if one should use MBR or GPT. MBR is for drives up to 2 or 2.2TB, for larger one would use GPT. Which then makes one ask the question why not use GPT anyway, since it supports bigger and smaller than 2/2.2TB. Shouldn't matter too much I guess. What matters though is whether or not to use GPT or MBR on an OS drive. Obviously GPT has advantages, but there's also some requirements from the PC/system to be met if GPT is to be used.

 

[Brink]

Sorry, the info at the top of the tutorials below can give you more information about GPT and MBR to help.

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26203-convert-gpt-disk-mbr-disk.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26193-convert-mbr-disk-gpt-disk.html

Basically, you don't need to use GPT unless you are going to have partitions over 2TB in size on the drive.

 

[soewhaty]

Thanks! And there is no difference which one of the 2 we use speed-wise, right?

 

[Brink]

Correct. No difference for performance.

 

[BorderReiver]

More advice required re Portable Hard Drives

Hi Brink, a very useful tutorial. However, I believe that it could do with just a little more advice on the end for what to do with a portable hard drive in order to make it usable again after doing a 'clean all'.

I followed your instructions in order to wipe a portable hard drive prior to possible sale. It worked fine although it did take a while. However, I struggled to get it to be recognised again in a computer afterwards. That may be down to my lack of knowledge of partitions and volumes but I'm sure that other readers may be in the same boat. As it was a portable hard drive, I suspected that I did not want a new partition as I thought that they were only used to separate areas on a single device. The "How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7" tutorial seemed, on glimpsing through, to concentrate on creating partitions. Perhaps a few wise words on having to create a new volume (or, at least, that is what I assume has to be done) may be in order?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

As it was a portable hard drive, I suspected that I did not want a new partition as I thought that they were only used to separate areas on a single device.

A hard drive, portable or not, has to have at least one partition to be usable.

If you purchase a new hard drive, it typically will not have ANY partitions. You'd need to create at least one. It would then have to be formatted in order to accept files.

 

[jasonsmith]

Does both Clean and Clean All rewrite the MBR section? Or just the Clean All?

I've done DOD 3 pass wipe on external HDD, and thought it would overwrite the ENTIRE disc. But looks like it doesn't touch the MBR as it doesn't ask you to set the MBR afterwards.

Whereas using the Clean or Clean will cause it to ask you to setup the MBR.

I have some spare hard drives that I put a cloned copy of the OS on. Use them to download questionable things in case they contain viruses or malware. So every so often I do a DOD 3 pass wipe to clean the drive. So I would also need to clean the MBR section as well in case a virus got in there.

Looking around I read of it being suggested to do something like a Clean or Clean All first, then do your wipe, then reformat it, then install the OS to do a clean wipe of any viruses that may be on there.

 

[Brink]

Hello Jason,

Yes, both the "Clean" and "Clean All" commands will completely wipe the drive along with how it's formatted until it's just unallocated.

I would recommend to use the "Clean" command since it's faster. The only difference is that "Clean All" does a secure erase that takes much longer to finish.

 

[jasonsmith]

Does "Clean" write over the boot sector then rewrite the boot sector when you select "MBR"?

I'm guessing the software that lets you clean a drive, i.e. DOD 3 pass wipe don't touch the boot sector. As after doing that, it doesn't ask you to select MBR or GPT. I only got it to ask that after doing the Clean or Clean All.

So I guess what I'll do if I need to clean a drive for any viruses. Is first do a Clean and reset it to MBR. Which I guess rewrites the boot sector. Then do my DOD 3 pass wipe or single pass wipe. Then do the LONG format, then load the cloned image.

 

[Brink]

Clean will only mark the entire drive as deleted to make it unallocated. This will wipe everything on the drive.

If this drive is for Windows, then you could just select the unallocated disk to install Windows on, and allow the installation to format and setup the disk with MBR.

 

[jasonsmith]

How would you recommend removing any traces of viruses from an external hard drive? Clean, then set to MBR. Then do say a full pass erase. Then install the cloned image or install from the factory disc.