Why you need to wipe a hard drive from BIOS?
“Can’t use Windows 7. I need to completely erase my 2 HDDs, not just format them.
Need to do it in BIOS, but can’t find any menu that leads to that kind of
stuff. Also, need to clear BIOS with move that small pin on the motherboard.
Want to do this to make my HDDs new like it was when I bought them.”
From this Scenario, we learn that the user wants to wipe a hard drive from BIOS
for new Windows installation. In fact, many users want to wipe a hard drive for
different using. If you want to give away the hard drive and don’t want to expose
the data on it, wiping hard drive should be the best way to remove data completely
from the hard drive. While if there is any problem of your hard drive installed
operating system, and you want to use it again, an easy way to wipe hard drive from
BIOS is simple for a fresh Windows installation.
It is different between wiping HDD and wiping SSD
To wipe a hard drive means to remove all data on the hard drive including operating
system, programs, and files. If you are wiping a data hard drive (without OS
installed), you can wipe all data by formatting hard drive
partitions. But if you are trying to wipe a system drive, you need to wipe
it from the BIOS, because you cannot format the hard drive on which Windows is
running.
You may use a solid state drive (SSD) as the boot drive. When your Windows OS cannot
use normally, you may need to reinstall Windows too. However, SSD is different from
HDD, if you use the same way of wiping HDD to wipe SSD, it may decrease its
lifespan. The good fortune is, this article will show you how to wipe a hard drive
from BIOS and how to secure erase SSD from BIOS separately.
How to wipe a hard drive from BIOS?
If you need to format a disk and you can’t do it within Windows, you can make use of
a third party software to create a bootable CD,DVD or USB flash drive, boot from it
and then, wipe the hard drive. Here we introduce you AOMEI Partition Assistant, which
should be the best hard disk wipe tool that allows you to wipe hard drive from BIOS
easily and freely. Before you do, you need prepare for it:
1. Free download AOMEI Partition Assistant, install and launch it.
2. Prepare a USB drive and use AOMEI Partition Assistant to create a bootable USB.
3. Backup hard drive first
because wiping hard dive will erase all data on it.
After those preparation, you can start to wipe hard drive.
Wipe HDD
Step 1. Boot your computer with the bootable USB you created. You
will get into the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right click the hard
drive you want to wipe. Select Wipe Hard Drive.

Step 2. It will pop up a window where listing the wiping methods. The
first option is enough for normal wiping. To use more advanced options, please
upgrade to Professional edition.

Important: Deleting system drive will cause computer
unbootable. Make sure you are aware of this.

Step 3. Then you will back to the main interface, click Apply to
submit the operations.

Thus, you have already wiped a hard drive. However, you can’t use the same way to
wipe a solid state drive (SSD) because it would hurt the SSD. The next content is
about how to secure erase SSD with AOMEI Partition Assistant.
Secure erase SSD
If you want to securely erase SSD, you need to upgrade AOMEI Partition Assistant to Pro version,
which can help erase all data on the SSD and restore it to the factory settings, and restore SSD performance. But it
cannot work secure erase SSD from BIOS at present. If you
need to secure erase an SSD, you can plug it to a Windows 7 computer and
start to erase SSD permanently without hurting it.
Step 1. Connect the SSD to your Windows 7 device. Launch AOMEI
Partition Assistant Pro. Click Secure Erase SSD Wizard at the left pane. If you have
any important data on the SSD, backup SSD first since this
operation will delete and erase all data on the SSD, and then, click Next.

Step 2. Then, you can select the SSD that need to be erased.

Step 3. It will remind you that your SSD in a frozen state. Then, you
need to do a hot swap for relieving it.

Hot swap:
1) Open your computer case. If it is a laptop, open the computer's
rear cover or drive shell.
2) Located the SSD that needs to be securely erased.
3) Unplug the power cable from the SSD.
4) Disconnect the SATA data cable from the SSD.
5) Reconnect the SATA cable to the SATA port on the SSD.
6) Finally, plug the power cable back into the SSD’s power
connector.
Step 4. After that, you can continue to secure erase SSD by clickingNext. Wait till the SSD has been erased successfully.

Summary
Those are the steps for how to wipe a hard drive from BIOS. No matter wipe HDD or
secure erase SSD, AOMEI Partition Assistant would do the best job. Actually, AOMEI
Partition Assistant is more than a wipe hard drive tool. Besides wiping hard drive,
it can also help you initialize disk, format partition, delete partition, and do many
other things to manage your HDD/SSD in the best status.