How to Wipe Partition and Erase Data Completely?

Why need to wipe partition?

Any disk partition can contain any kind of sensitive or vital data such as bank account details and other private information. So, it is a wise move to wipe partition regularly. Besides erasing the private and sensitive info, there are some other reasons for which you might need to wipe a partition completely:

• Remove the data that you don't need any longer;

• Free up more disk space on the whole hard drive and get rid of the marked unused storage;

• Restore the full capacity and repartition the hard disk;

• Eliminate some stubborn malware or viruses.

What is the difference between formatting and wiping a partition? ▸ Formatting partition just wipes its partition table clean and unlinks all files in the file system, making it entirely as writable space. The inside files are marked as "deleted" and actually still exist on the drive. You can add new files to overwrite those files. Besides, file recovery programs can find the deleted file and recover them from the formatted partition. ▸ Wiping partition is working directly on the file system level, beyond data secure. It aims to make a new disk for re-use with no old data on it. All data will be removed from the partition completely, leaving no chance of data recovery.

How to wipe partition in Partition Assistant?

To wipe a partition, you can use the AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, which provides 4 different methods of wiping algorithms to help erase all the data on a partition safely and permanently. Below are detailed steps you can refer to.

Before you do

• Download and install AOMEI Partition Assistant on a Windows computer.
• Connect the drive or partition to your computer.
• Backup useful data you don't want to wipe from the partition you are going to erase.

Wipe partition step by step

1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant,  click the "Wipe" main tab and select "Wipe Partition" option. (You can also right-click the partition you want to wipe and select the "Wipe Partition" option.)

2. Select the partition you want to wipe and click "OK" to continue.

In this stage, you can also select a wiping method to wipe the selected partitionaccording to your requirements and click "OK". (By default, the wiping method is Fill in 0.)

• Fill in 0: wipe the partition contents by overwriting them with zeros.
• Fill in random information: wipe the partition and overwrite existing contents with random data.
• DoD 5220.22-M: It will overwrite addressable locations on the hard disk with binary 0's, binary 1's, and a random bit pattern from once to seven times. The more times you choose to overwrite, the longer the process will take. Three times to five times are recommended. 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: Overwrite the partition with a random character for the first 4 and the last 4 passes and overwrite from pass 5 through pass 31 with a complex pattern.

3. You can preview the shrink operation by viewing the "Pending Operations". To commit the "Pending Operations", please click "Apply" and "Proceed".

Conclusion

Following the above steps, you can easily and quickly wipe a partition. This feature is mainly used if you want to completely erase all data on a drive and then free up more free space.

No matter what type of disk you want to wipe data on, AOMEI Partition Assistant does a great job in clearing data on hard drive and SSD disk. Apart from wiping data on these disks, it also provides "Quick Partition" feature for user to multi-partition hard drive or SSD in one click.

Notes:

• AOMEI Partition Assistant is not a 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. If you do need to wipe a specific file, please download a file-level wipe software instead.

• If you want to erase data on an SSD, you'd better not take the same way as wiping HDD. SSD Secure Erase feature in AOMEI Partition Assistant should be the best way to do that.

 

FAQs:

Q: How long will it take to wipe a partition?

A: The time to wipe a partition depends on many factors, for example, the wiping method you select, partition condition, amount of data, and so on.

Q: Is it still possible to recover data after the partition is wiped?

A: It will be unable to recover if the partition has been wiped. Data has been erased and it is unable to recover. Please make a backup in advance if there are important files/folders on the partition.