Best Disk Eraser to Completely Wipe a Hard Drive Including OS

Scenario

Does wiping a hard drive remove the OS?

The answer is absolutely YES! We know that hard drive is the main computer storage medium. The operating system, installed software, as well as documents, data, etc., are stored in the hard drive. If you intend to wipe the hard drive, the entire drive, I mean everything will be erased from it, including the operating system.

But how to completely wipe a hard drive on Windows 10? Before jumping to the solution, you may need to learn why completely wipe a hard drive due to the following reasons. Just continue reading to catch the essential information you want.

Why need to wipe a hard drive with Windows 10/11 on it?

🚩 Reason 1. When it comes to why you need to wipe the hard drive including Windows from boot, reinstalling Windows or clean install Windows can be one of the most common reasons. This operation requires formatting the system partition (usually the C: drive), but it cannot be performed within Windows.

🚩 Reason 2. Another reason is that something went wrong with the bootable partition and your computer is now unbootable. This partition contains the boot sequence, so you need to reformat it and recreate it.

🚩 Reason 3. Also, completely wiping all data and operating system from the hard drive and using it for other purposes, giving it away or reselling it is one of the reasons.

Knowing the intent to wipe a system hard drive, you probably can't wait to find out the best way to erase a hard drive. Below I will walk you through how to completely wipe a hard drive with Windows 10 installed.

How to completely wipe a hard drive including OS

How to completely wipe a hard drive and prevent data recovery? Luckily, there’s one best disk wiping software named AOMEI Backupper Professional can help you a lot. It is capable to run on all Windows operating systems including Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP, which provides Disk Wipe feature to wipe your hard drive including OS.

It can completely and permanently clean your drive without hurting it and keeps its performance in the best condition. You can also benefit a lot from its following features:

✨ You can choose to wipe an entire disk, wipe free space on Windows 11, a selected partition, or unallocated space using this software to meet your various needs.
✨ It allows you to wipe any USB flash drive, internal/external hard drive, SSD/HDD (WD, Crucial, Samsung, Seagate, etc.), as well as SD card, etc. no matter they are data drives or system drives.
✨ It provides 4 erasing methods, including Fill Sector with 0, Fill Sector with Random Data, DoD 52220.22-M and Gutmann.

Follow the illustrated steps below to securely wipe a hard drive with OS installed with AOMEI Backupper:

Note: It is essential to make a backup of the hard drive before erasing, as the files will not be recoverable after this process is completed.

Step 1. Download and install this reliable disk wiping software on your PC. Open it, click Tools and choose Disk Wipe.

Step 2. On the Select your desired wiping type page, choose Wipe Disk and click Next.

Step 3. Select the hard drive with Windows on it and click Next. You will be prompted the operation needs to be executed in reboot mode, click OK to confirm.

Step 4. On the Wiping Method page, choose Fill sectors with Zero to wipe all data on the disk and click Start to proceed. There are four methods available:

• Fill sectors with Zero (Safe, Quick)
• Fill sectors with random data (Safe, Quick)
• DoD 5220.22-M (Very Safe, Slow)
• Gutmann (35 passes, Very Safe, Very Slow)

Notes:
☁ This feature doesn’t support dynamic disks wiping currently.
☀ Safer wiping methods come with more passes and lower wiping speed.

Final thoughts

That’s all about how to completely wipe a hard drive including OS. After the disk wiping with the best disk eraser – AOMEI Backupper, you can resell or reuse this hard drive. The wiped data can not be recovered, which can protect your sensitive data from leaking.

AOMEI Backupper is more than a disk wiping tool, as the best free backup and restore software, you can use it to create a full backup of your PC for continuous data protection. And once there’s something goes wrong with your computer, you can use this full image backup to restore your computer to previous state.