You may need to completely delete files from your Windows XP hard drive for various reasons. This article aims to teach you how to permanently delete files from hard drive Windows XP in a fast and secure way.
Generally, there are different situations where people search for "how to permanently delete files from hard drive Windows XP" on the Internet. Here we listed the most possible cases where People will do such a thing:
◉ When you want to sell or give away your hard drive. If you no longer need your hard drive on Windows XP, you may want to delete files from it so that you can sell or throw them away without being stolen by other bad guys.
◉ When your files are corrupted or destroyed. Sometimes, your files may be infected by viruses or malware. Force deleting the corrupted files is a good way to prevent viruses from affecting the entire hard drive.
◉ When you need to protect some data by deleting it. If there are some sensitive files on your computer, you can delete them forever in case of information leakage.
◉ When you tend to free up space. It's a common phenomenon when your hard drive is full of all kinds of files, you can delete some unnecessary files to get much more space.
Simply dragging the files to Recycle Bin or pressing Shift + Delete doesn’t remove the files permanently. It only marks the space that stores the deleted files as empty. And the deleted files are easily restored by data recovery software before they are overwritten.
At this point, it's recommended to switch to a great file eraser tool, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It is an all-in-one disk manager for Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista to completely delete files from the hard drive. And the following three points make AOMEI software outstanding and remarkable in deleting files:
★ It supports deleting specific files. If there is only one single file you need to remove, AOMEI software allows you to choose it by yourself. ★ It allows to delete all files at one time. The "Wipe Hard Drive" feature enables you to erase all the files on the hard drive spontaneously if you don't want to tick the files one by one. ★ It's available to only delete junk files. This software will automatically scan and find junk files on your computer and allows you to clean up them completely.
Thanks to the graphic and clear interface of AOMEI software, all operations can be done in a few steps. You can download the freeware and follow the steps to see how to permanently delete files from hard drive Windows XP:
In this part, we will introduce you how to permanently delete files from hard drive using the three features mentioned above.
Note: All the files deleted by the following three ways are irreversible, please back up some important files in advance.
The "Shred Files" feature is welcomed by users to delete a single file/folder or a lot of files/folders. It also provides you with several shredding methods, so you can select based on your choice. Now, let's begin to see how it works:
Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Click “Wipe” on the upper pane and choose “Shred Files”.
Step 2. In the "Shred Files" window, choose "Add Files" or "Add Folders" to add the files or folders that you want to erase without recovery. Here I choose "Add Files" and pick the target files.
Step 3. After adding all the target files, you can see the files in the "Name" list. If you want to remove one or more files from the list, just untick it. If you want to view what the file is, you can also put the mouse on the file or folder path and double-click the path to open it.
Step 4. After specifying the files, choose the shredding method. Here, you can only choose "Write Zero".
If you want to choose the three advanced shredding ways, please upgrade to the Professional version:
Random data (1 pass, Pro): Overwrite with random data.
DoD 5220.22-M (7 passes, Pro): Overwrite with binary zeros firstly; secondly with binary ones; thirdly with a random bit pattern.
Gutmann (35 passes, Pro): Overwrite with a random character for the first four and the last four passes and with a complex pattern from pass 5 to pass 31.
Step 5. Click the "Shred" button and you’ll be asked whether you are sure to shred selected files/folders thoroughly. Click "Yes" to continue the operation.
Step 6. After all the added files or folders are deleted, you will see the message "All files/folders have been shredded completely" on the top.
If all the to-be-deleted files are stored on the same hard drive and you no longer need them, the "Wipe Hard Drive" function can perfectly solve your problem. Here are detailed steps on how to permanently delete data from hard drive:
Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. In the main interface, right-click the hard drive that needs to be wiped, and select "Wipe Hard Drive" in the pop-up menu.
Step 2. It will pop up a window for you to choose the wiping method. Here we choose "Fill sectors with Zero", which is safe and quick. This operation will delete all partitions and erase all data on the selected hard drive. Click "OK" to continue.
Note: Other three advanced wiping methods are available in the Pro edition, which can help you clean your computer hard drive deeply.
Step 3. Click "Apply" to start wiping.
If you just want to remove junk files from your hard drive, "PC cleaner" should be your first choice. It can easily and efficiently delete junk files from your computer. Now, let's see how to use this free PC cleaner.
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, and then click "Free up" in the top toolbar and select "PC Cleaner".
Step 2. In the pop-up window, click "Start Scan" to scan for junk files.
Step 3. Wait until the scanning process completes.
Step 4. After the scan is completed, all kinds of available junk files will be listed. Then, tick the options you want to clean, then click "Clean All" to begin the cleaning process.
Step 5. When you see a correct symbol displayed in the interface, you can click "Back" to exit the Window.
How to permanently delete files from hard drive Windows XP? From this passage, you should have known the detailed tutorial. With the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, there are at least three different methods for you to complete deleting files on the hard drive. Besides, you can use it to manage your disk better: move folders from C drive to D drive, convert MBR to GPT, migrate OS to SSD, clone hard drive without restart, and so on.