2 Reliable WD Zero Fill Utilities for Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 | Try It Now!

Content of this article:

• Need WD zero fill utility for Windows
• Reliable WD zero fill utilities you could try
• How to easily fill sectors with zero using WD zero fill utility | 2 Methods
• WD zero fill utility FAQs:
• Your turn

Need WD zero fill utility for Windows

Western hard drive can be one of the most popular disks on the market due to its high quality and strong background, many users use it as boot drive or store personal data. It’s produced by Western Digital corporation, one of the largest computer hard drive manufacturer.

However, as time goes by, you may want to upgrade hard drive to large drive and use the old one as second-hand storage device, sell it out or donate to others. Before that, you need to make sure all your data are securely erased and cannot be recovered.

Simple deletion or format does not do this for you, because it can only delete the file system, making the data is invisible, but still lying here. And you can use a data recovery software to recover it easily. Then, how to make your data go forever? A professional WD Zero fill utility can help you, it will overwrite the original data with a zero value.

Relilable WD zero fill utilities you could try

Searching online, you may find there is an official WD zero fill utility, although it’s not original designed to erase data and protect personal privacy leakage, it’s Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows.

This tool is originally used to test the physical condition of your hard drive and only works in a DOS booted environment. Later, you can use it in Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 (both 32-bit and 64-bit version). But the official website says this tool was replaced by the Western Digital Dashboard utility, and it’s not no longer supported.

As a matter of fact, you still can download data lifeguard diagnostic for Windows from the western digital website and the Western Digital Dashboard utility only supports WD SSD. Thus, if you are using any type of HDD, it’s still worth a try.

In addition, you still can try third-party WD zero fill utility - AOMEI Backupper Professional, which can do the same thing as data lifeguard diagnostic for Windows. It clean a hard drive by its useful feature "Disk Wipe" to overwite hard drive sectors with a zero value or using other wiping methods. Learn more about it below.

• It is able to write zeros to hard drive in Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10,11.
• It supports erasing all-branded disk, such as, WD, Samsung, HP, Dell, Seagate, etc.
• It allows you to wipe specific partitions or unallocated space, or entire disk, which makes the disk wiping process more conveniently.  
• It has more disk wiping methods, such as, fill sectors with zero or random, Peter Gutmann, DoD 52220.22-M.
• It allows you to perform bootable disk wipe by creating bootable media with it. Thus, even if your computer is not bootable, you still can execute this operation.

How to easily fill sectors with zero using WD zero fill utility

To fill sectors with Zero, you can the software comes along with WD hard drive or directly use third-party software. Please check them first and then make your decision.

Method 1: Use official Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows

Step 1. Download the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows from WD official website, extract and run the program, WinDlg_vx_xx.exe.

For Windows Vista or new version of Windows users, you need to right-click the WinDlg_vx_xx.exe file and choose to Run As Administrator. 

Step 2. Accept the license agreement.

Step 3. Here you will enter the man page of this program, you will see two windows.

The top windows will show all the available drive for testing including its model number, serial number, capacity, and SMART status. While fore the bottom window, it will only show the partition information for the selected drive.

Step 4. Select the drive and the operation you want to perform, test or run SMART status. 

Step 5. Click the run tests icon and then select ERASE option in the "DLGDIAG - Select an Option" window. 

Notes:
The ERASE option has two ways, you can choose to write zeros to the drive with Full Erase and Quick Erase. File system and data will be lost after erasing.
The VIEW TEST RESULT allows you to see the latest test results.

Step 6. Confirm the operation you select and click the Start button. 

Method 2: Use third-party WD zero fill utility

Step 1. Download WD zero fill utility - AOMEI Backupper Professional and open it. Then, go to Tools > Disk Wipe and click it.

Step 2. In the wiping type window, you have two options, one is wipe selected partitions & unallocated space on the disk, the other one is wipe disk. To zero fill hard drive, select Wipe disk and click Next.

Notes:
❤ Selected partitions & unallocated space on the disk: This option is to delete the selected partition(s) or unallocated space with a zero value.
❤ Wipe disk: This option will delete all the partitions on the hard drive and fill every sectors with zero, which is done once and for all.

Step 3. Select the disk you want to wipe and click Next.

Step 4. In the wiping method window, select Fill sectors with zero and click Start. If you want a safer choice, you can choose the other three different disk wiping methods, fill sectors with random data, DoD 52220.22-M, Gutmann.

Notes:
❤ If you are wiping system disk of the current computer, this software will finish the zero filling process under the windows PE environment. Thus, don’t stop it if your computer restarts.
❤ This tool currently does not support wiping dynamic disk.
❤ If you have any further question, you could click the Help button at the left-bottom corner and learn more about Disk Wipe.

WD zero fill utility FAQs:

How do I check my WD hard drive health?

As mentioned in the WD official website, Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows is able to test WD internal and external drives, thus you can use it check the WD hard drive health. It supports Quick Test and Extended Test.

Will format fix bad sectors?

Full Format was the same as Quick Format in Windows XP and earlier version of Windows, but has the ability to perform a disk scan for bad sectors, not fix it. The same is true for Windows XP and newer version.

How do I fix bad sectors on my WD hard drive?

For Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows, it has two test types, one is Quick Test, the other is Extended Test. Among them, the Extended Test is able to detect bad sectors and repair any correctable errors. This process will take several hours and it depends on the size of the drive.

Your turn

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows and AOMEI Backupper Professional are WD zero fill utilities to erase sensitive data or remove virus from your current WD hard drive. Please note the WD official website says the Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics is not supported. For safety reasons, it’s suggested to use AOMEI Backupper Professional.

In addition, it is still a backup and restore software to protect your data continuously by its powerful solutions, such as, file backup, system backup, disk backup, partition backup, schedule backup, etc.