How to Scrub Hard Drive? |Freeware Download

“How do I scrub hard drive?”

“I am going to sell my laptop soon. Before discarding my system, I want to make sure that no one could use my personal data easily (format does not work). Is there any program or software out there that can help me scrub my hard disk permanently?”

Sometimes, you need to scrub hard drive permanently. For example, if you are selling or giving away your old hard drive, while you do not want others to know your personal data, you need to erase all data on the hard drive. The simply deleting files or formatting hard drive isn’t enough. All you need to do is to scrub your hard drive. But how to scrub hard drive in Windows 10/8/7 permanently and safely?

Free software to scrub hard drive in Windows 7/8/10

To scrub your hard drive, you can use the Windows Diskpart clean disk with the “clean” or “clean all” command. However, this operation with Diskpart clean command is irrevocable. Once there is any problem, it may cause irreparable losses. Thus, many users are searching for a professional program to do that. Here, we would like to share AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard with you.

This freeware is compatible with all editions of Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. It comes with the “Wipe Hard Drive” feature, which can completely erase a hard disk drive and write zeros to each bit, significantly decreasing the data recovery chance. Besides, it is also able to wipe a specific partition. You can download the freeware and learn how to scrub hard drive in the next section.

How to scrub hard drive in Windows PC step by step?

Now, it’s time to learn how to scrub a hard drive step by step. Since this process will erase everything from the target disk, please back up anything you require in advance. Besides, if your computer cannot boot into Windows for some reason, you can create a bootable media (USB drive/DVD/CD) via this freeware and boot PC from it. If everything goes well on your computer, just install and launch the software, and execute the following steps:

Step 1. Right-click the target hard disk you need to scrub and choose “Wipe Hard Drive”.

Step 2. In this window, choose the first wiping method: “Fill Sectors with Zeros” and click on “OK”.

Step 3. Then click on “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

Wait for the process to be done. The more data you saved on this disk, the more time it will cost.

Note:
If you want to adopt another three different wiping methods (Fill sectors with random data, DoD 5220.22-M, Gutmann scrub the hard drive), you can upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

Summary

Now, you should know how to scrub hard drive in Windows 10/8/7 laptop or computer. Apart from the “Wipe Hard Drive” feature, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard also offers many other wonderful functions: clone hard drive, clone partition, convert data disk to MBR or GPT without deleting partitions, transfer OS from MBR disk to MBR disk, and so on. And the Professional edition even can help securely erase SSD drive, transfer free space from one partition to another one, migrate OS between MBR and GPT disk,etc. For Windows Server users, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is worth a try.