AOMEI Partition Assistant
Best Alternative to Fdisk Wipe Hard Drive in Windows
If you fail to use Fdisk wipe hard drive, why not try a better alternative to wipe your disk? In this post, we’ll show you the best disk wiping tool to replace Fdisk.
By Lucas / Updated on May 12, 2023
What is Fdisk?
Fdisk refers to a collection of partitioning applications for block media such as hard drives and floppy disks. The phrase derives from "fixed disk," an English term for a hard disk coined by IBM.
As the earliest disk partition utility with DOS software, Fdisk can be used via command line options as well as a character-oriented user interface (dialog or menu-based). Users can build partitions, add or delete spaces, manage storage space on new drives, format and re-organize old drives, and so on.
With the advanced development of PC technology and devices, Fdisk has gradually ceded to modern disk managers like Disk Management and Diskpart because it doesn’t support storage larger than 64GB.
What’s more, using the Fdisk command to wipe hard drive is very hard for normal users. Fdisk commands are quite long and complex, and it takes a long time to execute the task. Users need to be familiar with DOS orders and patient with the process.
How to use Fdisk wipe hard drive?
In fact, if you search Fdisk, now you can only get “util-linux fdisk” tool which is only for the Linux system. If you open Windows Command Prompt and type “Fdisk”, there’s nothing on the screen. If you’re going to reuse your hard drive, you can use Diskpart to clean your disk.
A foolproof Fdisk alternative—AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional
The reason why we suggest you choose the Fdisk alternative is not just that Fdisk formatting doesn’t fit modern Windows PC. The most important reason is data safety. Although Diskpart can clean your hard drive, it only does a facial clean. The data won’t be deleted via any methods, but it can be covered by meaningless data to protect your privacy. Thus, if you want to do a thorough clean, you’ll need a professional disk wiper.
AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is such a tool for Diskpart and Fdisk alternative. It’s a disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP PC users to manage their devices conveniently.
The “Wipe Hard Drive” function offers you 4 ways to wipe your disk, you can choose a suitable way to thoroughly clean and cover your target disk to protect your personal information from being recovered if you’ll give the disk to another user.
Step 1. Download and install AOMEI Partition Assistant, select a hard drive that you want to wipe; right-click on it and choose the "Wipe Hard Drive" option.
Step 2. Choose a wiping method to wipe the selected hard drive according to your requirements and click "OK". If you want to sell your disk or give it to another user, you’d better choose one of the latter three ways.
• Fill sectors with random data: It overwrites the hard drive with random data. It is more secure than the first one.
• DoD 5220.22-M: It is much more secure than "zero-filling" and "random data filling" and faster than the Guttman. Thus it is often adopted by companies and organizations.
• Gutmann: It overwrites a hard drive with 35 passes. It is the safest way here, but it also takes the longest time.
Step 3. Click "Apply" in the toolbar to execute the operation.
Now the space on the target disk is unallocated, you can reformat it to reuse or sell it.
Bonus tips: About SSD secure erase
If the target disk is an SSD, please do not wipe it as a traditional hard drive. Due to the SSD having a different structure from HDD, wiping it will reduce its lifespan or even damage it. To clean an SSD, you need to employ a tool that has a secure erase feature to reduce damage to your SSD.
AOMEI Partition Assistant can also do this for you. It has an “SSD Secure Erase” function to clean your SSD.
Wrap things up
If you’re looking for the best alternative to Fdisk wipe hard drive, AOMEI Partition Assistant is a foolproof option. You can not only wipe a hard drive, but also clone the disk, migrate OS, move installed programs, and so on. What’s more, it has the Server Edition for Windows Server users to manage their devices.
