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- Completely Erase External Hard Drive
- Wipe External Hard Drive Windows 10
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- Secure Erase External Drive
- Delete External Hard Drive
Disk Utility User Guide
Secure Erase is a method used to completely wipe out the data on a hard drive using a set of commands. Secure Erase commands write binary one or zero to the sectors on the hard drive to overwrite all the existing files. That's why the data removed by the Secure Erase commands is not recoverable by any data recovery method available.
![Completely Erase External Hard Drive Completely Erase External Hard Drive](https://www.diskpart.com/screenshot/en/std/wipe-hard-drive/wipe-hard-drive-16gb.png)
- Connect your external hard drive to your computer Open your Disk Utility App Select the drive you want to wipe clean (just to be sure you don’t erase the wrong hard drive, disconnect any other external hard drives and double-check that the correct drive is selected).
- Press the Enter key and your external drive will be erased completely. This video also has more: Wiping an external hard drive on Mac is an easy task. With one of the.
In Disk Utility on Mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your Mac. Erasing a storage device deletes everything on it.
- If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device.
- Open the Disk Utility app on your Mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase:
- If you want to erase your startup disk: Start up from macOS Recovery, then choose Disk Utility from the Recovery window.
- If you want to erase any other type of storage device: Double-click Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
- Choose View > Show All Devices.
- In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to erase, then click the Erase button .
- Click the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map. Drive time machine.
- Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format.
- Enter a name.
- (Optional) If available, click Security Options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click OK.Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices. If the Security Options button is not available, Disk Utility cannot perform a secure erase on the storage device.
- Click Erase, then click Done.
Note: With a solid-state drive (SSD), secure erase options are not available in Disk Utility. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive.
See alsoPartition a physical disk in Disk Utility on MacFile system formats available in Disk Utility on MacPartition schemes available in Disk Utility on MacFormat a disk for Windows computers in Disk Utility on MacApple Support article: How to erase a disk for Mac
On this page, you'll learn how to effectively wipe SSD on Windows 10/8/7 on your own:
- When Do You Need to Wipe an SSD
- How to Secure Erase/Wipe SSD in Windows 10
- #1st. Download SSD Secure Erase Tool to Wipe SSD
- #2nd. Wipe and Erase SSD in Windows 10
What Is Secure Erase
Secure Erase is a method used to completely wipe out the data on a hard drive using a set of commands. Secure Erase commands write binary one or zero to the sectors on the hard drive to overwrite all the existing files. That's why the data removed by the Secure Erase commands is not recoverable by any data recovery method available.
However, although they are commands. You cannot run Secure Erase commands like you run commands in Windows 10 in Command Prompt since they are available from the firmware on the hard drive. Thus, to secure erase your SSD in Windows 10, you need third-party software like EaseUS partition manager software to help you execute these operations.
When Do You Need to Wipe an SSD
When do you need to perform a secure erase on an SSD? Completely wiping an SSD is needed when you want to:
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- Resell the SSD: One of the preparations you need to make before reselling a storage device like SSD is to wipe out all the data on it, which prevents others from accessing your files.
- Prepare the SSD for another user: To protect your information, you may want to destroy the files on the storage device.
- Clean up SSD for other usages: To clear SSD for OS installation, using it as a game drive, or a second data disk, etc.
- Remove virus or malware on the device: If your SSD is infected by a virus or malware, you may want to totally remove it by secure erase your device.
How to Wipe SSD in Windows 10
Follow through the process in this part, you'll securely erase SSD and make it ready for any purpose as listed above:
We suggest you follow the tutorials one by one as presented in this part. If you don't have essential data saved on your SSD, skip the 1st guide and start from the 2nd guide.
- Notice:
- It's necessary to stress that before you wipe SSD, you need to back up your files if these files are still useful as you cannot recover your data after secure-erase.
- For an effective way to make a backup, free backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup can help you out.
#1st. Download SSD Secure Erase Tool to Wipe SSD on Windows 10
Professional partition tool - EaseUS Partition Master will help you securely erase and wipe an SSD in Windows 10, fully clean up SSD, making data unrecoverable with ease. This disk/partition management tool has a feature named 'Wipe Data', which works almost the same with Secure Erase commands.
'Wipe Data' vs Secure Erase Commands
Both the 'Wipe Data' feature and the Secure Erase command erase your data by overwriting all the data on your SSD. However, Wipe Data feature in EaseUS Partition Master exceeds the Secure Erase command:
- Secure Erase writes binary 1 or 0 to the disk sectors while 'Wipe Data' writes random numbers.
- Wipe Data doesn't damage the SSD, while the Secure Erase command will.
- Wipe Data in EaseUS Partition Master is easier than Secure Erase, which is especially friendly to beginners.
Get the software to wipe your SSD in Windows 10 right now:
#2nd. Simple Steps to Wipe an SSD in Windows 10
These operations cannot be undone after applying the changes. Once again, if you have valuable data saved on SSD, back up them at first.
Step 1: Install and launch EaseUS Partition Master.
Select the HDD or SSD which you want to wipe. And right-click to choose 'Wipe Data'.
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Step 2: Set the number of times to wipe data.
You can set to 10 at most. Then Click 'OK'.
Wipe External Hard Drive Windows 10
Step 3: Check the message.
A message tells you that the computer would restart after disk erase is recommended. Then click 'OK'.
Step 4: Click 'Apply' to apply the changes.
Click 'Execute the operation' and then click 'Apply' to start wiping data.
Be careful that once the process is carried out by EaseUS Partition Master, the data will become unrecoverable with any data recovery software or service! Wait for the process to complete and then you can use the wiped SSD as a new disk for installing a new OS, games or sell it online.
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You may also interest in: How to Install a New HDD/SSD on Windows 10/8/7.
The Bottom Line
People might want to wipe or erase an SSD drive for various reasons. Erasing an SSD (solid-state drive) can sanitize the drive. So you can make sure that the virus or malware will no longer hide somewhere in the drive.
Besides, wiping an SSD helps to recover lost performance on systems with inefficient garbage collection. But unlike a traditional hard drive disk (HDD), there are not so many tools that can wipe SSD drive. Here to save your time and efforts, we recommend you to try EaseUS partition software, a secure erase utility that does work with SSD drives.
People Also Ask About Secure Erase SSD
You can securely and completely wipe your SSD in Windows 10 to erase all the content, including personal data, viruses or malware using EaseUS Partition Master. If you have further questions related to secure erase SSD, check the questions and answers below, you will get a satisfying answer.
1. Does Secure Erase damage SSD?
As explained on this page, Secure Erase is a process that runs commands from the firmware to wipe disk data, writing binary one or zero to the hard drive at a sector level.
This will make data unrecoverable on SSD, which may also do some damage to the disk while writing the 0 and 1. To protect your SSD, we suggest you try a third-party disk wiping tool like EaseUS Partition Master for help.
2. How do I avoid data loss due to securely wipe an SSD?
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As we recommend, to avoid data loss while wiping an SSD, it's necessary that you back up all essential data to another device in advance. You may try EaseUS Todo Backup to create a backup image of your SSD data with the following steps:
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Todo Backup software and then choose 'File Backup', 'Disk/partition Backup' or 'System Backup' for different backup purpose.
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Step 2: Choose the system, disk partition, files or apps that you want to back up. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file.
Step 3: Adobe fuse system requirements. Click 'Proceed' to start the data backup process.
To securely wipe an SSD and make the disk clean, you'll need a professional disk wiping tool for help. As recommended on this page, EaseUS Partition Master is able to help.
3. How do I secure erase Samsung SSD?
To erase Samsung SSD, you may revert to the steps above to complete the process. Or you can follow the quick guide here to get jobs done:
#1. Back up useful data on Samsung SSD to another device.
#2. Download a reliable wipe tool to secure erase Samsung SSD.
Here you can try EaseUS Partition Master, or other wipe tools like Samsung Magician SSD Tool, SanDisk SSD Dashboard, etc.
#3. Securely erase and wipe Samsung SSD with selected wipe tool.