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Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

How to "Clean" or "Clean All" a Disk with the Diskpart Command
Published by Brink
03 Jan 2010
Published by

Brink

How to "Clean" or "Clean All" a Disk with the Diskpart Command

Information
This will show you how to use the clean or clean all command on a selected disk to
delete all of it's MBR or GPT partitions, volumes, and any hidden sector
information on MBR disks is overwritten.
The data on the HDD is not written over using the clean command like it does with
the clean all command below. With the clean command, the data on the HDD is
only marked as being deleted instead and is only written over when new data is
written/saved to the same location on the HDD next.
OR
You could use the clean all command (secure erase) to do the above and also have
each and every disk sector on the HDD written over and zeroed out completely to
securely delete all data on the disk to help prevent the data from being able to be
recovered. "Clean All" takes about an hour per 320 GB to finish running.
Note

You cannot use the clean or clean all diskpart commands on a boot disk (ex:
disk Windows is installed on) unless you do it from a command prompt at
boot.

Be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose on the disk that you
use clean or clean all on first. It will be to late afterwards. All data will be
permanently lost on the disk.

Warning
You do not want to use clean all on a SSD disk often. Having every sector written
over to 0 on a SSD can reduce it's life span faster.

Here's How:
1. In Windows 7, open an elevated command prompt, or a command prompt at
boot.
OR

2. In Windows 8 and 8.1, open an elevated command prompt, or a command

prompt at boot.
Note
Be sure that you have the correct Disk #. You would not want to wipe clean the
wrong disk.
A) Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type compmgmt.msc, and
press Enter.
B) If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.
C) Click/tap on Disk Management in the left pane, and make note of the disk # in
the middle pane of the disk that you want to clean or clean all. (see screenshot
below)
NOTE: For example, I would use Disk 1 if I wanted to use clean or clean all on my
USB key drive.

3. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (see screenshot
below)

4. In the elevated command prompt, type list disk and press Enter. (see screenshot
below)
NOTE: This will give you a list of disk numbers to select from.

5. In the elevated command prompt, type select disk # and press Enter. (see
screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute # for the disk number listed that you want to use clean
or clean all on. For example, I want to use one of them on Disk 1 (from step 1) for
my USB key drive, so I would type select disk 1 and press Enter.

6. If the status of the selected disk # (ex: Disk 3) shows as Offline, type online
disk, and press Enter to make it online. (see screenshot below)

7. Do either step 8 or 9 below for which command you would like to use.
8. To Use the Clean Diskpart Command
NOTE: (Recommended) See the green INFO box at the top of the tutorial for more

information about this command. This command will wipe the HDD quickly.
A) In the elevated command prompt, type clean, press Enter, and go to step 10
below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will not take long to finish. Think of it as being like a quick format.

9. To Use the Clean All Diskpart Command

NOTE: See the green INFO box at the top of the tutorial for more information
about this command. This command will wipe the HDD, and perform a secure
erase. "Clean All" takes about an hour per 320 GB to finish running. It's best to
only use this command if you wanted to help make sure that the data on the HDD
cannot be recovered say when giving or selling the HDD to another person.
A) In the elevated command prompt, type clean all, and press Enter, and go to step
10 below. You will see the command prompt below as is until the "clean all"
command is finished. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will take quite some time (several hours or more) to finish depending
on how large the disk is since it is writing over each and every sector on it to zero.
Think of it as being like a full or low level format.

10. When finished, in the elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter.
Close the elevated command prompt.
11. The disk will be left as unallocated space. (see screenshot below)

12. You will now need to create a new partition or volume on the disk to be able to
use it again.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7

How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7

How to Extend a Partition or Volume in Windows 7

How to Delete a Partition or Volume in Windows 7 and Windows 8

How to Convert a FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS in Windows 7

How to Convert a MBR Disk to a GPT Disk

How to Convert a GPT Disk to a MBR Disk

How to Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

How to Quick Format a HDD or USB Drive

How to Securely Wipe a Hard Disk with "Darik's Boot and Nuke"

How to Overwrite Deleted Data using the "Cipher" Command in

Windows

03 Jan 2010

#1
Night Hawk

Windows 7 Ultimate x64, W10 Preview - Second remote tower Windows 7 Pro x64
8,388 posts
New England

I can
remem
ber
zero
filling
drives
only
13gb or
less
using a
dos
tool
and
that
would
take
just
about
the
entire
day
when
you
mentio
n "full
format"
!
Nice
and
simple!
This
will be
a help
when
going
to wipe
any

flash
drive
as well.

My System Specs
05 Mar 2010
Bare Foot
Kid

#2

Hello Brink.

I just did this on my SSD and at first I thought to make the SSD "Offline" in disk
management but in the command window it said that it could not "clean all" on a
W 7 64-bit disk that's "Offline"; you may want to add a mention of this in the tutorial; I'm
Ultimate sorry I didn't think to get you a snip of it, but it should be easy to replicate.
24,361 posts
The Lowcountry

It only took about 15 minutes to do a "clean all" on an 80GB SSD, not bad.

Thank you!
My System
Specs
05 Mar
2010
Bare Foot
Kid

W 7 64-bit

#3

Here's the snip, I re-did it for you.

Ultimate
24,361 posts
The Lowcountry

My System
Specs