When it comes to getting rid of your old hard drives, you may want to delete the all the information on the drive completely. However, simply deleting or formatting the hard drive is not enough to ensure your privacy, because you only delete the file system, making the data invisible but not gone. In this age of high tech, the deleted or formatted information can easily be recovered though a file recovery program or special software.

If you want to make sure that your private information is gone forever, you’ll need to erase them using third party software, such as AOMEI Partition Assistant, an all-in-one and easy-to-use partition software. With this tool, you can complete many tasks that Windows built-in disk management tools cannot do, such as move/resize/merge/split partitions, migrate OS to another SSD or HD, wipe hard drive/partition permanently, etc.

How to wipe hard drive permanently?

Here is going to show you how to wipe hard drive with this magic and advanced disk manager.

First, launch AOMEI Partition Assistant to get its main interface. Right click the drive/volume that you want to wipe out and select “Wipe” option in the drop-down menu.

Wipe hard drive

Notes: If you choose to wipe your hard drive, your computer will be completely unusable, because you are not able to boot into your OS after wiping. If you just want to wipe some certain files or data, you can wipe the partition.

Second, confirm your operation and click “OK”.

At last, click “Apply” button on the toolbar to save all the changes.

Tips: Before you start the steps above, backup everything you want to keep. When the hard drive is wiped, there will be no way to get anything on the drive back.

How to securely erase SSD in Windows 7?

As we know, the newly Solid State Drive (SSD) has different data stored structure to hard drive. Therefore, it needs different techniques to do the data wiping. The latest AOMEI Partition Assistant provides a dedicated feature for SSD secure erasing. Let’s get to know it step by step since it is a little different from deleting hard drive.

SSD Secure Erase

First, connect the SSD to a Windows 7 computer and make sure it is not the boot drive. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant again. Right click the SSD and select “Secure Erase SSD”.

Second, choose the SSD from the giving list to erase.

Third, it is common that you encounter the frozen state. It is a protection for SSD’s data. You can do hot swap to release it.

Finally, click “Next” to start the wiping process.

Perform a Hot Swap:

  • Open computer case cover, or back cover or hard shell on laptop.
  • Find the selected SSD and unplug the power cable off SSD.
  • Unplug SSD’s SATA cable.
  • Reconnect the SATA cable to the SATA or IDE port.
  • Reconnect the power cable to the power port. Close the cover.

Tips: Do not erase your SSD too frequently. Storage like SSD has self-sufficiency (SSD TRIM) to maximize drive life and ensure data is properly discarded.