How to Wipe Windows Server 2016 Completely and Securely in 3 Steps?

Reasons to wipe Windows Server 2016 drive

“I have an HP laptop that was running Server 2016. It was infected by a bit of ransomware. I competely disconnected it from any and all networks. I have installed a new copy of Windows Server 2016. How do I completely wipe the drive to make sure that any malicious software has been removed.”

From the user case above, we know that users might wipe Server 2016 in order to eliminate all possible malicious software from the hard drive for a fresh clean reinstallation. But there are other reasons. For example, after the user clone Server 2016 to new SSD/HDD, wiping the old hard drive can free disk space for new data. Moreover, it is also necessary to wipe Server 2016 hard disk before selling, donating, or throwing away it, which can prevent private data from leakage.

Best data wipe software for Server 2016 (4 wipe methods)

Wiping all data from the Windows Server 2016 hard drive is not an easy task especially when we want to do that without causing any physical damage on the disk. Besides, we want to ensure that nobody else can easily get access to the erased data. Taking those factors into consideration, we recommend AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. It can help Windows Server 2008 (R2)/2012(R2)/2016/2019/2022 users to securely and permanently wipe the hard drive. Besides, it offers 4 data wipe methods for Windows Server HDD:

⓵Fill sectors with zero: wipe the disk contents by overwriting them with zeros. Each bit in the disk will be replaced with a zero value. Once the data are overwritten with zeros, the process cannot be undone from the hard drive.
⓶Fill sectors with random data: different from the zero filling, this mehod is to overwrite disk with random data. It is more secure and reliable than the first wipe solution.
⓷DoD 5220.22-M: this method will wipe the hard drive with 3 passes (pass 1: writes all addressable locations with binary zeroes; pass 2: overwrites all addressable locations with binary ones; pass 3: overwrites all addressable locations with a random bit pattern).
⓸Gutmann: pass and overwrite hard drive 35 times. The first four passes and the last four passes write the random data. The fifth to the thirty-one passes overwrites the hard disk with patterns of ones and zeros combination. It is the slowest data shredding algorithm but the most secure.

3 Steps to wipe Windows Server 2016 hard drive

Now, we will show you how to erase Windows Server 2016 hard drive step by step. But before that, please check out the precautions:

①Back up data to cloud or external hard drive that are important for you because the erase data cannot be recovered easily.
②Wiping the Server 2016 system hard drive will be processed under the Windows PE mode. If your Windows Server cannot boot for some reason, you need to make a bootable media first and do the clean.

PS.: you can download the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server Demo version for a free trial first.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Right click the system disk and choose “Wipe Hard Drive”.

Step 2. In this window, choose the proper wipe method for your situation and requirements. Then click “OK”.

Step 3. Back to the main interface, click “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

Then the computer will enter the Windows Server PE environment and execute the operation. But you should note the computer won’t boot afterward since the system is erased. If the Windows Server 2016 disk is an SSD drive, you can connect the drive to a Windows 7 computer, and use the "SSD Secure Erase" feature of this software to completely erase the solid-state drives.

Summary

So, with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, you can easily wipe Windows Server 2016 hard drive by 3 steps. It is not only compatible with Windows Server operating system, but also compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista.

Besides the hard drive wiping function, this software also comes with other amazing functions, such as wipe a partition, allocate free space from one partition to another, convert boot disk and non-system disk between MBR and GPT without deleting partitions, etc. To use such an amazing tool in unlimited Server or PC, please try its Unlimited Edition.