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

 

[RoWin7]

What about DBan? Does it overwrite several times are just do the minimum?
​

 

[soewhaty]

The statement I made in the thread you linked to is of course depending on one's situation or wants.

If there were no issues requiring otherwise and you were keeping the computer, then a simple "clean" command or clean install should usually be fine.

"Clean all" can take a long long time to run, so I don't like to recommend it as a first option unless the situation calls for it.

You have a point about your statement. I do agree. All due respect to you and the other admins/staff I mentioned. No hard feelings. Just trying to get to the bottom of it all.

Now, sth else which is important. 'Ccleaner - Tools - Driver Wipe - Security' offers 1, 3, 7, and 35 passes. In terms of running the 'clean all' command - is that equivalent to running it 1, 3, 7, and 35 times or am I missing something here? The more the passes, the less likely data are to be recovered, that I do know, but the passes ... can they just be equated to running the command over and over again?

 

[Brink]

No worries. I enjoy the discussion.

"Clean all" and those programs both perform a "secure erase", but the programs make it easier to do multiple passes.

The more passes you do, the less chance any data can be recovered. Usually one pass is good enough to prevent the average data recovery program from being able to recover data. If you had very sensitive data, then it may be best to do several passes using a program like CCleaner or DBAN to make it easier.

Of course, the more passes, the longer it will take. This could take several days depending on how many passes.

 

[soewhaty]

No worries. I enjoy the discussion.

"Clean all" and those programs both perform a "secure erase", but the programs make it easier to do multiple passes.

The more passes you do, the less chance any data can be recovered. Usually one pass is good enough to prevent the average data recovery program from being able to recover data. If you had very sensitive data, then it may be best to do several passes using a program like CCleaner or DBAN to make it easier.

Of course, the more passes, the longer it will take. This could take several days depending on how many passes.

Sure thing, but are 5 passes simply equal to running the clean all command 5 times in succession??? I am asking because I need to know how to do several passes of secure erase during the Win7 installation / language selections screen.

And yes, the discussion was pointed towards getting to the bottom of it. Did enjoy it too :_) And thanks for DBAN - looks solid.

What about DBan? Does it overwrite several times are just do the minimum?
​

From what I read that in that DBAN thread Brink linked to, it seem that DBAN definitely can do more than 1 pass, which is really good.

 

[Brink]

Running "clean all" five times in a row would essentially be the same as running five passes. It'll take a while to finish that many though.

 

[soewhaty]

Running "clean all" five times in a row would essentially be the same as running five passes. It'll take a while to finish that many though.

Alright - is DBAN quicker then? Does running DBAN with 3 passes take less time than running clean all 3 times in succession?

 

[Brink]

Using DBAN should be faster.

 

[RoWin7]

I'm wiping a Vista machine a friend gave me, and I'll be installing Win 7 on it. I don't see any malware on it. Will the Win 7 disk's wipe be good enough? I can't use Diskpart on the same HD I'm wiping. Or can I?

 

[Layback Bear]

Because it's a friends old computer, you don't know what is on the drive.
If it was my computer I would do a Clean All or a 3rd party disk wipe program. One pass of the entire drive should be enough.

Jack

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Personally I don't see much difference if any between a clean, clean all, or a wipe it does basically the same thing and as I sort of pointed out with the chalkboard analogy.

There are plenty of drive cleaners/wipers whatever you like to call them and all I am saying is that a lot of people just format and then usually end up back here wondering why their clean install is not quite right or the drive is balking at installing at all because as I said because I know that Windows will format the drive on installing itself onto the cleaned drive. Plus it takes no longer to clean a drive than to simply format it and I think that formatting is best left for preparing a drive of any sort for use after it has been cleaned or individual partitions on a drive.


Now the only reason that I will clean all a drive is when I am going to give one away to someone else but as Brink and Jack have said it does take a great deal longer time to do that - having said that it depends on the size of the drive of course.

I agree though that debates like this are

 

[RoWin7]

Because it's a friends old computer, you don't know what is on the drive.
If it was my computer I would do a Clean All or a 3rd party disk wipe program. One pass of the entire drive should be enough.

Jack

Good idea. Would I have to remove the HD and attach it to this computer to run the clean-all? Or can I put the program on a disk in that computer?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

No mate I would attach it to another machine and use a USB to SATA adaptor/ USB dock or straight plug in .

But if he wants any data of it first then he can use this
BOOTABLE UBUNTU
Make a bootable Ubuntu disk https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
Set the BIOS to boot from the optical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL > select TRY not INSTALL
When it is finished - it takes very little time you will get a screen like in the pic .
Open the drive you want > User and dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy / paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doing this.
I am not sure if it will but I have recovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or just plain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.
Or there is this Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS I prefer Ubuntu a tad easier to set up but this does the same thing

 

[Layback Bear]

You can hook the drive you want to clean in any fashion you care to. It would be the quickest it you used a Sata connection. You must be careful to make sure you pick the correct drive when you do a clean.

Jack

 

[soewhaty]

Personally I don't see much difference if any between a clean, clean all, or a wipe it does basically the same thing and as I sort of pointed out with the chalkboard analogy.

There are plenty of drive cleaners/wipers whatever you like to call them and all I am saying is that a lot of people just format and then usually end up back here wondering why their clean install is not quite right or the drive is balking at installing at all because as I said because I know that Windows will format the drive on installing itself onto the cleaned drive. Plus it takes no longer to clean a drive than to simply format it and I think that formatting is best left for preparing a drive of any sort for use after it has been cleaned or individual partitions on a drive.

Now the only reason that I will clean all a drive is when I am going to give one away to someone else but as Brink and Jack have said it does take a great deal longer time to do that - having said that it depends on the size of the drive of course.

I agree though that debates like this are

Hi there - if you personally don't see a difference between clean and clean all then pls see my 2 posts here - Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Page 30 - Windows 7 Help Forums and Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Page 30 - Windows 7 Help Forums or read Brink's explanation here - Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Windows 7 Help Forums

You should, by now, know the difference between clean and clean all as it is rather substantial. Your chalkboard analogy is only applicable when we talk 1 pass vs 35 passes. But clean and clean all do 2 very different things so go ahead and see the links I referred you to.

As to the 'wipe', that you are mentioning - AFAIK 'wipe', 'secure erase', 'secure delete' and 'clean all' (but NOT 'clean') are one and the same thing essentially. So that's why nobody every compared wipe to anything in the discussion so far.

As to what you said - 'Windows will format the drive on installing itself onto the cleaned drive' - Windows does a Quick Format there and not a Full Format. I think those two can be likened to Clean and Clean All commands (they might even be the very same thing, dunno). So Windows's doing a Quick format is not much of help because this does not overwrite anything, it just marks data as to-be-overwritten. As I pointed out several times by now, you might easily have malicious data telling Windows never to overwrite it. So therefore hoping that Windows will automatically clean things for your is simply a no go. And again we end up needing the Clean All (not Clean) command. That is, ofc, only needed in cases where you either don't know what was on the drive or you are in doubt about infections etc.

 

[Brink]

Of course if you want to be completely sure no data can be recovered, melt the old hard drive and use a new one.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Of course if you want to be completely sure no data can be recovered, melt the old hard drive and use a new one.

Yep that would do the trick :roflmao:

 

[RoWin7]

You can hook the drive you want to clean in any fashion you care to. It would be the quickest it you used a Sata connection. You must be careful to make sure you pick the correct drive when you do a clean.

Jack

I've been gone from this discussion a few days.

I'll have to skip the Ubuntu. I'm not familiar with that, and I would be back here asking 10 questions again. And she doesn't want any data from the computer, not even the photos and docs she left on. I tried burning the DBan ISO onto a disk, and it refuses to be copied.

This discussion has gotten so long and complex. I want to clarify: It's best to attach it to this computer and use DiskPart CleanAll? There's no chance of wiping the wrong one because the 2 partitions in this machines are named SYSPROGC and DATAD

Rochelle

 

[soewhaty]

I'm wiping a Vista machine a friend gave me, and I'll be installing Win 7 on it. I don't see any malware on it. Will the Win 7 disk's wipe be good enough? I can't use Diskpart on the same HD I'm wiping. Or can I?

Ofc you can use 'diskpart / clean all' on the disk that you are wiping. You just gotta do it right before the installation of Windows, and launch command prompt there. A real guru explains how to do that here - DISKPART : At PC Startup - Windows 7 Help Forums and SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation - Windows 7 Help Forums I'm surprised the support staff hasn't pointed you to these threads by now.

I want to clarify: It's best to attach it to this computer and use DiskPart CleanAll? There's no chance of wiping the wrong one because the 2 partitions in this machines are named SYSPROGC and DATAD

Why would you attach the hard disk to another computer? Keep it in the computer where it is and perform the clean all there, with CMD, right upon the language selection screen of installing windows. Unless I misunderstood you, then no need for extra trouble...

 

[RoWin7]

I didn't know I could run Diskpart from the installation disk. I've never had to wipe a disk so thoroughly before, only my own disks.

The support staff has been helping me. You went to my original problem and skipped all the replies, then read my most recent question.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep well you can even use other cleaners too see this list and as some are very nuclear you need to use with caution but they are thorough Best Free Hard Drive Eraser | Gizmo's Freeware