How to clear hard drive
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
Hard drive is main storage component of the computer. This component sometimes become overloaded and requires a formatting to make its memory free and have a fresh start. One can format the hard drive manually without any expensive software. In some cases one got to make use of the software. It is a tough ask to format a hard drive especially if you are trying it for the first time.
Materials Needed:- A computer System
- hard drive
- backup storage method and recovery software.
Step 1
Before formatting the hard drive one has to store the important data in some external storage device because once you clear the hard drive the data can not be restored. Delete all the files from the computer. By just deleting the files through Windows programs; they are not deleted and can be saved in the recycle bin. This will not set free the memory of the hard drive and the data can be restored to the computer.
Step 2
One should make use of the software to clear the hard drive completely. The process of erasing data from the hard disk will only keep the deleted files in swap files or vacant locations of the hard drive. One needs to find a wipe program to clear all the files and make hard drive empty. Sometimes these programs are known as shredders and they overwrite data with characters to make it hard to recover the data. It may take some time.
Step 3
Use the software available in the market to delete the data from the hard drive. Make use of the hard drive data retrieval software. By using the programs like Disk Investigator one can have a total access of the hard drive data. These are not made for hacking purpose, but only to check whether the hard drive contains any files or data after clearing it. One can imagine from this that how powerful data recovery programs have hit the market already.
Step 4
Once cleaning is over, remove the hard drive. By checking it clearly one can sell his System to other person, but if you are still in doubt then sell it without hard drive. The whole data and information of the hard drive is stored in the platter, inside the case. It is like a DVD or CD which stores the data.