If you want to erase or format the bootable hard drive, you can try the freeware: AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It is a reliable bootable hard drive eraser freeware and allows you to securely wipe boot drive in Windows 10, 8, 7.
Bootable hard drive, as the name implies, contains files that are used to boot an operating system. In Windows, bootable hard drive refers to the hard disk containing system partition or drive containing system and boot files, usually C drive and it might include another drive letter if one installs a dual-boot system. Then why it is necessary to get a bootable hard drive wipe tool that can completely erase the boot disk. The answer is very simple.
To prevent users from deleting or damaging operating systems by inappropriate operations and making OS unbootable, Microsoft does not allow users to delete, format, or wipe the OS under Window environment. So when you try to use “delete” or “format” option in Disk Management to remove or format system partition, you will find that option is grayed out. Besides, Windows built-in tool has no function of wiping an entire hard drive. Therefore, the bootable hard drive eraser freeware becomes a necessity.
The simply deleting or formatting files on hard drive may cause leakage of information because all of them can be recovered by professional data recovery software. In order to get around such incidents, you need to use a specialized hard drive eraser. The AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a free dedicated partitioning tool designed for Windows operating systems, including Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista.
This utility provides “wipe hard drive” and “wipe partition” features, which can wipe an entire hard disk or a specific partition and overwrite the existing information so as to prevent easy data recovery. Supposing that you have Windows 7 and Windows 10 on different hard drives or partitions and you want to wipe the Windows 7 drive, you can login from Windows 10 and perform wipe hard drive order directly via AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard and securely erase all contents. If you have only one OS installed, you can try to erase hard drive from bootable USB created with “Make Bootable CD Wizard” function of the software. Now, you can free download the bootable hard drive eraser.
Note: Use the function with caution because once wiped, you are not able to access this system and all data anymore.
Step 1. Install and start AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right-click the hard drive you want to wipe and select “Wipe Hard Drive”.
Step 2. Select the first wiping method to fill sectors with zero, and click "OK" to continue.
Step 3. Here is the notification that reminds you of what you’re doing now. Click “Yes” if you’re sure about this.
Step 4. This is virtual result of wiping Disk 1. Click “Apply” to make it real.
Step 5. Here is the final confirmation and some extra information as well. There is a reboot required, click “Proceed” to start.
Tips: ▸To adopt another three advanced wiping method like “Fill Sectors with Random Data”,”DoD 5220.22-M” and “Gutmann”, you need to upgrade to Professional. ▸If you want to erase or format bootable USB hard drive, please refer to erase files on SanDisk USB drive. ▸AOMEI Partition Assistant is not file-level wipe software but a sector-level one. So, you can only use AOMEI Partition Assistant to wipe partition or disk. After a partition/disk has been wiped, all the files on it will be erased simultaneously.
It is quite easy to wipe a hard drive with OS on using free bootable hard drive eraser AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. In fact, it is also a bootable hard drive format utility and can easily format system drive. The advanced Professional version has more helpful functions that are suitable for advanced users, such as allocated free space from one partition to the other, recover data, convert the system disk between MBR and GPT for Windows 11 upgrade, and convert between dynamic disk and basic disk, transfer OS to SSD, etc.