Completely format hard drive removing all partitions (including OEM)
Vložit
- čas přidán 15. 03. 2017
- This is tip for Windows on how to complete format and remove all partitions from a hard disk, including those which are normally protected and can't be deleted.
This makes it very easy to re-use an old hard drive from a laptop or desktop that was previously used to boot an OS.
In this video I format a hard drive to use as backup.
[subtitles are available]
* the screen goes black every time a UAC request appears *
NOTE: AN UPDATE HAS REPLACED COMMAND PROMPT WITH POWER SHELL FOR SOME VERSIONS OF WINDOWS - you can still access Command Prompt by searching for it, then right clicking the result and choosing 'RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR'.
If you are planning to re-use the disk as a boot device please be sure of the correct partition format that your computer will recognise (GPT/MBR).
More details on GPT MBR comparison: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Pa...
This process will remove partition information, it will still be possible to recover data from the disk.
To securely format a disk there is a freeware tool called Eraser which I covered briefly in a video here • Securely delete files ...
If the 'clean' command is not successful (for some rare instances) there is an alternative: 'clean all', this will zero all the data on the disk including partition information and will probably take a very long time. This will make data recovery difficult (but not impossible). If you then wanted to ensure data recovery was not possible you could then use Eraser (see above) to wipe the disc several times.
This video may use annotations which may not be available on all devices.
The image I am using for my wallpaper was created by Andreas Levers; I found it here: andreas-demo.myportfolio.com/
- - -
Please leave me comments with any feedback, questions, or if you would like to see a particular tutorial or tip.
If you found this video useful please click the thumbs up like icon, thank you.
If you enjoy my content, and would like to support what I do, please view my Ko-Fi page here: www.ko-fi.com/aronalliston - Jak na to + styl
Video was 2 years ago and this man is still liking comments, a true legend.
Thanks for your comment :-D I try to respond to all the comments I receive when I can ;-)
will this delete all your files from disk and u need create a new disk and u will have a lot of space in disk?
@@AronAlliston will this delete all your files from disk and u need create a new disk and u will have a lot of space in disk?
@@leolaal2833 Hi, this process removes the partition information from the disk, effectively making all data unusable in one go. In the video I then add a new partition and format it. It will give you the maximum disk space available :-)
More than three years now, It is still working. Thanks, buddy.
Perfectly explained. That's exactly what I was looking after some pretty terrible articles delivered by Google
Thanks very much :-) Glad I could help ;-)
will this delete all your files from disk and u need create a new disk and u will have a lot of space in disk?
@@leolaal2833 Hi, this will remove all partition information from the disk, effectively making all data inaccessible. Then in the video I create a new partition to fill the drive and format the drive appropriately.
This video is 6 years old and in 4 minutes it solved something countless articles on google couldn't. Great job! Thank you so much!!
Glad I could help :-D
OMG, I LOVE YOU MAN... I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR AGES AND IN 4MIN YOU HELPED!!!
:-D Glad I could help :-)
I love him too!!!
WHATS THE PERSONAL NAME OF YORU GOD??
It's been over 4 years since I had to reformat and wipe partitions and this video is 5 years old now. This is a great refresher for those of us that don't do this very often. You really don't need to be a super geek to understand and follow your instructions. Good job Aron! Thanks Bunches!!!
Thank you! :-D Glad I could help :-)
All these years later and this is still the best and most straight-forward way to do this. Cheers!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Still now 2021 💥❤️🇧🇩
Hey Aron, thank you for taking the time and effort to produce this excellent, easy to follow video tutorial on your method to remove partitions in a hard drive. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for such a nice comment :-D
Glad I could help :-)
The first video that showed up on Google search for formatting partitioned drive and it's the only one you need. Literally step by step, even having to re-open Disk Management. Quite shocked how easy and fast it was to do. I also heeded your caution and disconnected my other drive just to be certain. Easy peasy. I cannot thank you enough!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
One of the best instruction vids I have EVER come across; clear, to the point and very helpful
thanks very much for your comment :-) glad I could help
Agreed. Excellent job.
I have been trying to wipe this freakin SSD for a week. I come to this video and it took me less than 5 minutes. Absolutely amazing video!
@@CooltommyguyRealm ... Didn't u get the problem i'm having, my SSD has been a bitch since a few weeks ago, sais i can't wipe a disk containging the system boot (obviously) but how do i swap it to my other alt. HDD
@@tile_markmark9518 Change the boot order in your BIOS settings.
I searched for hours literally almost threw my computer out in frustration and you fixed my issue in less than 10 minutes. you are awesome sir, liked and subbed. thank you for the helpful content
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Same here. Thank you so much
i actually did snap my laptop in half from this problem. incredibly frustrating
This is an excellent tutorial even dummies like me can understand. No startup graphics and no tacky music, straight to the point. New subscriber here! Thank you from Australia in 2020.
Thank you :-D And G'Day ;-) Glad I could help :-)
That was exactly what I was looking for. Clear explanation, upbeat tone, nice voice and volume. Perfect tutorial. Thank you very much.
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
you are a life saver, i have spent 2 hours trying to format the whole drive!
glad I could help :-)
Aron Alliston so I have a problem I installed a new m.2 SSD already migrated everything to it it works fine when I disconnect my HDD with original On it but when both are connect even after I changed setting in bios and boot order/priority it still loads the HDD first I need help formatting it with it active & installed
@@JustxLiving909 If it were the 90s I'd say the irq settings. This will sound dumb but try physically switching ports. Put 0 where 1 is and visa versa. Maybe check bios updates. Remove boot sector of old one. Just brain storming here
Thank you so much. For a whole day I was having an issue making my laptop choose the SSD as the main boot drive and when I finally did, whenever I would reset the laptop, it kept choosing the HDD as the main boot drive and I wanted to delete EVERYTHING on it so it would default to the SSD as the main boot drive and this saved me a lot of headaches. Appreciate it.
Glad I could help ;-)
Awesome guide Aron - really clear, concise and complete - exactly what novices like myself need. Thank you for taking the time to put this out there 👍👍
Thank you Stephen; I'm glad I could help :-)
Exactly what I was looking for. Easy, short video that goes straight to the point. Thank you!
Glad I could help :-)
Thanks, Aron. As other have said, this is spot on and so much more useful than some of the roundabout methods uncovered by a Google search. Partitioning and formatting are puzzling activities for some of us and your video gives the reassurance we need.
Thanks for your comment Roger :-) I'm glad I could help ;-)
hello!! it’s january 6, 2020 and i just followed this video since i wanted to format my hdd to make it my storage after adding an ssd. i gotta say, this is absolutely helpful. very straight to the point and i can clearly understand every step. thank you so much and kudos to you, aron! :)
Thanks for your comment jenn :-) Glad I could help ;-)
And It's 2021 Jan 30..
This guy still rock's 💥❤️🇧🇩
Aron, you got one of the most easiest way to removed partitions in one go without any hassle for any layman. Very much appreciate your post that help us find the way unlike others that go around so many obstacles and yet still fail to remove it.
You are the best ever and thanks.
Thank you for your nice comment Yang :-) I am glad I could help :-)
the most direct to the point "how to" video I've ever seen. simple, yet informative. Thank you sir Aaron! *salute!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thank you so much.
spent hours on google searching for help and when i was about to lose hope your video came up and in 2 minutes done everything I needed.
Glad I could help :-D
This was amazing!!!! Thank you so much! I've been trying to wipe this drive all day (I started around 8:00am and it's now 11:30pm) and this finally did it. Words can not express how grateful I am, Thank you!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help ;-)
Excellent instruction. Easy to follow, things happened just as shown, unlike many other videos that show things happening that are not there for most people. Thank you!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
This is a great tutorial! I had a hard drive with multiple fragmented partitions, some of which can't even be deleted. I wanted to reformat the entire drive with little progress in Windows 10,
until I found this clip. The diskpart command features introduced in this video saved the day! Thanks for posting this video tutorial!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
You literally saved my 1TB SSD, I couldn't find a clear-cut a solution anywhere, Thank you!
Glad I could help :-)
@@AronAlliston love it! it was so straight to the point! thanks
@@NoelAbhi1 :-D Glad I could help ;-)
will this delete all your files from disk and u need create a new disk and u will have a lot of space in disk?
The "clean" function should be in the right click menu for disk management, messed with this for an hour before finding this video. Thanks!
will this delete all your files from disk and u need create a new disk and u will have a lot of space in disk?
I'm from Vietnam. Thank you very much ! I have trouble about reset the hard drive, I searched for many videos but your method is really really easy to understand.
You are an absolute legend. 4 years later after you made this video it still works and helped me out so much. THANK YOU!
Thank you :-D Glad I can still help :-)
Damn, I can't say how helpful this was.
everything that I have found online was just a bunch of site trying to make me download their shitty software, or just plain bad advice.
thanks dude
Glad I could help :-)
will this delete all your files from disk and u need create a new disk and u will have a lot of space in disk?
Just to echo the comments of S. Karl and others, this video was very direct, concise and to the point without any unnecessary navel-gazing. After having spent many hours searching through useless self-promoting video "efforts", this was a treat to come across. Within a matter of minutes, I was able to solve a problem that had been nagging me for days. Thank you very much for the professional presentation.
Thank you very much for your nice comment Doc :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Fantastic - clear, to the point and works most importantly. Solved what I wanted to do in 4 minutes (length of video) rather than the half hour I spent looking through different web pages, thanks.
October 2020 - still the best tutorial out there!
I have no idea why 227 people gave this a thumbs down??
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Because there are at least 227 twats that watched the video.
Nov 2023 and still the best video I found expaining how to do this. Cheers!
I am now seeing this and I am proud to say it worked !!!! I went to a computer store yesterday and they did not get it done and I paid my money to come home to watch this and be successful!!! Thanks a lot!!! Great video!!!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
2019 still great tutorial and to the point! Cheers!
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
OMG!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO THIS FOR AN HOUR. GREAT VIDEO! 2 THUMBS UP!!
Thank you very much :-) Glad I could help ;-)
A simple, straight to the point video with clear instructions. 10/10 would recommend to a friend
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Best and useful instruction video in YT. This is the exact thing I am searching because I want to use an old internal hhd to become a new external storage. This video is the answer. Huge thanks!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Top man couldn't have made it any simpler...subbed
thanks ;-) glad I could help :-)
OMG this is exactly the vid I was looking for. Got a new SSD in for my OS, moved it over from HDD and now wanted HDD wiped and storage only. I love you no homo
Ha ha :-D Glad I could help :-)
Man, you did in one small video what hundreds of blogs can not explain easily... thanks
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
A very intuitive and easy to be understood video. No flaws, very comprehensive and super easy. Thanks much, you're a life saver.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
@@AronAlliston it was helpful beyond measure. Keep it up, we appreciate you.
Works perfectly. Thx :)
glad I could help ;-)
You're the man!! Thank you so much. :)
:-D Glad I could help ;-)
Just got my Hard drive enclosure for my old laptop hard drive delivered. Copied my important data. Followed this video's steps and voila. I've got a new hard disk! Thank you so much!
Glad I could help :-)
i messed up this new drive with partitions over it cloning my old OS drive. not knowing what im doing i ended up with a 4TB drive showing 237GB exactly what i already had. no matter what i tried, what site i read instructions on, which programme i used, none would allow me to erase the whole disc to start again. THANK YOU so much for making this easy and being the only one that helped.
Glad I could help :-D
thank god i found this :)
Your video continues to assist in 2019. Thank You
Good to hear :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Me to..
I'm from sri lanka...
@@redzone8914 Beautiful country :-)
@@AronAlliston Thank you brother..
Tried everything I could in disk management to put a disk essentially back to factory but nothing worked. In a couple of minutes, you solved my problem and cleaned up a lot of foul language at the same time. Thank you sir - you are a true scholar and gentleman.
Glad I could help :-D
I snapped 2 laptops in half trying to understand partitions within the last month.
Your video made it really easy to do what i wanted. i had bought a new ssd and copied my old one to the new one and it changed the partition sizes so my new ssd had the same amount of usable space. so frustrating. somehow nobody could make a video showing how easy it is until youre video popped up. i'm extremely grateful
Glad I could help :-D
Bless your soul ❤️🙌
thanks ;-) glad I could help :-)
Nice video man...
But can I remove all the partitions of internel hdd by making it as an externel one and by connecting it to the another pc. Then will I be able remove all the partitions of that externel hdd which connected to another pc without harming that PC's drives.
Plz reply...
Hi, thanks :-) You can wipe the partitions from a drive that you have not booted from. So you could take an internal drive and place it into another computer (or use a USB caddy) and then wipe the drive, this is what I am doing in the video.
I had a part of an internal HD that could not be assigned... read a lot of articles about right clicking and assiging but that did not work at all.
This video showed how easily and quickly to completely reset a drive and it worked perfectly. Thanks for this video !!
Glad I could help :-D
this was a massive help. thank you. why this answer doesn't come up when you google or in any forum is beyond me. i even went and got an icybox so i could load my boot drive and then hot swap in my old boot drive to try and wipe in disk management, but it wouldn't let me! could have just selected the correct boot drive in bios and then finished the job with this from the start, which is what i ended up doing. good on ya!
Glad I could help :-D
Incredibly clear and concise, no rambling, great tutorial!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help ;-)
Was building my new rig and my windows install did some weird things. I wanted the install on my SSD, but it went to my HDD instead. Also had to reformat a drive for a friend. Thanks to this video, my woes have come to an end! I greatly appreciate you, sir!
Glad I could help :-D
this is one of the most helpful videos ever thank you still works even today march 15 2023 you just helped me install and format a 10 tb harddrive much appreciated
Glad I could help :-)
THIS IS THE ONE, on a real note, this is the video which actually solved the problem, mad props to you 👌🧡💛🤎
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Excellent. 4.5yrs on, and this video just gave me a simple and clear explanation of exactly what I was trying to do, after wasting my time with horrible Microsoft and Google articles.
Glad I can still help :-D
Thank you *so much*. I have been searching all over for a way to wipe the entirety of my drive, not just a drive letter. Thank you for making it simple
Glad I could help :-)
Bruh! I've wasted so much time over the years trying to find special software or workarounds when I needed to format. Thank you for this, this was extremely simple!
Glad I could help :-D
THANK YOU! I recently built a new computer and switched to a M.2 SSD for my OS, but wanted to use my old HDD for storage. I just wiped it clean and formatted it in less than 4 minutes. You rock.
:-D Glad I could help :-)
I ran into an issue where an old hard drive I was using for backup was crashing my new PC on startup. This video helped me clear it off and fixed my issues. Excellent! Thank you!
Glad I could help :-D
By far the best formatting hdd vid out there quick and easy and very easy to follow thank you.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help ;-)
THANK YOU!!!!! This is EXACTLY what I needed. I have never found a more perfect and concise tech tutorial before. You are a saint!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
What a Guy! I attempted to install windows on a new drive and it failed multiple times, filling it up with loads of 100MB partitions. After scrolling through many Microsoft forums, I was under the impression you are not able to delete these. Then I find this guy on CZcams and managed to delete all of these old partitions. Cheers Dude, Legend! Stay Safe.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
I searched for an hour on how to use an old system disk on a new computer. This was simple and perfect! Thanks!
Glad I could help :-)
Great video. No waffling or pointless nonsense at the beginning. Worked first time, thank you Aron.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Excellent...Just what I wanted. So many searches just brought up disk manager which couldn't handle a disk partitioned by another operating system.
I was able to revert this to a single partition following this method.
Spent about whole day trying numerous softwares, nearly went mental. You saved me. Thanks a lot.
Glad I could help :-)
I have no idea about PCs, but this was simple, understandable and didn't have any extra stuff like the average "I'M DOING A GIVEAWAY, AND..." or sponsors or any of that, this is a great video
Thank you :-D Glad I could help ;-)
7 years old video and it helped me today in 2 minutes, thank you so much
Thanks for the help man. This info shouldn't have been so hard to find, but you're the first I found in quite a bit of searching. Trying to remove a PS4 lock on an external drive I wanted to use for another purpose.
Thanks again.
Glad I could help :-)
Quick easy and no fluff. Very well put-together video. Thanks!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
God how easy did this video make it! I've been searching for hours to find out how to do it easily. Thanks!!!
Glad I could help :-D
Its a 7 year old video, yet helped me in 2024. Best, easy and clean video. Thanks buddy.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thanks man, very clear and easy to follow instructions! I switched to an SSD and cloned the drive, so I wanted to reformat the old HDD for storage. Your video explained and showed everything perfectly! Thanks a lot!
Glad I could help :-)
Five years later and still works! In my case I used the powershell inside the windows terminal and I needed to use "SELECT" all uppercase and the name of the disk being case sensitive. like "SELECT Disk 1", and then clean. And after just create a new simple volume! Thank you!
Glad I could help :-)
its been 7 years and still helps :)
I just had a hard drive of old laptop. I cannot merge all partitions into one. I have been searching for a perfect video for 1 hrs..Finally, I find this video. It really helped. Thank you so much,
bro.
Glad I could help :-D
I don't know why you need to go through this convoluted way of erasing and old system drive off another computer but I'm glad this video was at least easy to find, excellent guide!
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
THANK YOU !!!!!!!! I was completely at a loss how to get my back up drive wiped and ready to use. Your explanation was perfect, and very easy to follow
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thank you Aron. Just removed partitions, and reformatted a 240GB Crucial SSD, following your precise, clear video. Excellent, this 84yo moving from 12yo Medion MD8265 [Win10] to new Asus desktop [Win11]. Needing clean SSD to backup the original setup using Macrium Reflect. So now right to go. Again thank you for your video. Well done Aron. 🤩
Glad I could help :-)
I've had malware on my computer and I was searching like hell online on how to reformat a hard drive but couldn't found any. Am gonna try your tutorial now. I hope it works on removing the malware! Fingers crossed. Thanks for the tutorial!
Hi, this may help, the process will remove the partition information from the drive effectively making all the data unreadable. As a precaution I would run a bootable antivirus tool that can scan your BIOS, and also scan any other drives you think may have been infected.
Mate! You are an absolute diamond!! I've been scouring countless software for freeware which say they are free but are basically lying. You have nailed it. Thank You!! Subbed
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Great job. So many bad videos out there that don't explain the steps it really takes. Thanks for the walk through.
Thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
Really like this simple video. No blah blah blah preamble at the start that so many content creators like to have nowadays. Every step shown on the video -- very reassuring when you are wiping a hard drive!
Also I had googled around beforehand and most guides just parrot each other saying to open the disk manager and mess around with removing / shrinking / expanding. But that doesn't give you a clean start like this.
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Thank you, I have been trying to clean the disk for two days already. Your video really helps me.
Glad I could help :-)
Awesome tutorial man! I just upgraded my OS drive to an M.2 NVME from a SATA SSD, and this helped me setup the old SATA as a fresh new storage drive in no time.
Nice :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thank you so much. Got to admit I was seriously nervous typing "clean" and hitting enter. Worked out perfectly. You the man!
Glad I could help :-)
Just want to echo what others have said. Amazingly clear instructions, easy to follow and no stupid background music. This is exactly what I was looking for and it worked perfectly!! Thank you very much for this video. No need to pull my hair out now!! Once again .... Thank you!!
Thanks for your comment :-D Glad I could help ;-)
Thank you sir.
U made this video really easy to understand to every noob that tries to format and clean a used hard drive
Glad I could help :-)
Nice straight to the point, no fluff easy to follow tutorial just the way I like it, Thanks Aron!
Glad I could help :-)
duuuuuuude i have been messing around with my pc for the entire weekend trying to re install windows but couldnt because of oem partitions, this just saved me two hard drives my guy THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
:-D Glad I could help :-)
What a life saver! Over four years ago and it's still great. Soooooo helpful :)
Glad I can still help :-D
I just want to thank you SO much! You have actually helped me alot with this video. I had no clue on how or what to do. Video was also straight to the point. Thanks so much man!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
This video was super helpful. I got a new drive and started using that as my C: drive and I was looking for a way to delete the old windows files on my old drive. Thank you very much.
Glad I could help :-)
You have made life so easy for me with doing this video , it makes life really easy.
Glad I could help :-)
Thank you! This helped me a lot. Had a stupid partition that I couldn't seem to go away, but now it's wiped clean and all back to normal now!
Glad I could help :-D
This was super useful. I've been battling for hours when it was so straight forward.
Glad I could help :-)
I’ve been looking everywhere for this! Thanks a bunch dude.
Glad I could help :-)
I think it is one of the best instruction video I have ever seen. Very easy explanation; only follow pass to pass and that is !. I appreciate very much your job. Thanks you very much
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)