How to Erase a Hard Drive for Recycling (3 Ways)

Why erase a hard drive for recycling?

If you want to give away or dispose of your computer, it is necessary to erase a hard drive for recycling. The hard drive may contain sensitive data in the following:

• Usernames and passwords of different accounts.
• Family photos
• Bank account details
• Credit card information
• Browser History
• Other confidential data

Thus, if you don’t want others to know or just to prevent your data from getting into the wrong hands, you need to erase your hard drive. If you still worry about it, destroy a hard drive with a hammer or a drill.

The effective ways to erase a hard drive

Searching for “erase a hard drive for recycling”, you may find, some users want to dispose of a hard drive or computer completely, while others still want to keep a fresh version of Windows. In order to meet the needs of different users, you may need different methods:

• Use disk wipe software.  AOMEI Backupper Professional is a great choice. It allows you to wipe the entire disk and offers you different disk-wiping methods. The safer method comes with more passes and lower speed, such as seven passes secure erase.
• Remove everything and reinstall Windows. This method (Reset this PC) deletes all the data, drivers, and non-preinstalled programs from a computer, only keeping a bootable OS.
• Use a hammer or drill. 

How to destroy a hard drive before recycling

Here you will learn 3 effective methods to destroy a hard drive before recycling. Select the one based on your needs and follow the steps in the corresponding method.

Use disk wipe software

The easiest way to erase a hard drive for disposal is using disk wiping software like AOMEI Backupper Professional, you just need to press a few clicks and it will safely handle the erasing process. The data security depends on the selected disk wiping method:

Fill sectors with zero: As the name suggests, this method is to write zero to hard drive and overwrite data on it. The speed is relatively quick.

Fill sectors with random data: Similar to the previous method, it fills sectors with ransom data instead of zero, which makes data recovery more difficult. 

DoD 52220.22-M: It allows you to erase a hard drive at least 3 passes and up to 7 passes.

Gutmann: It is the most thorough way, which will erase a hard drive 32 passes.

To recycle the disk with confidence, it’s suggested to use DoD 52220.22-M or Gutmann disk wiping method to erase a hard drive. Please download AOMEI Backupper Professional to have a try!

(PS: AOMEI Backupper Professional supports only Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Server.)

Step 1. Install this reliable disk eraser and run it. Click Tools and select Disk Wipe.

Step 2. On the Wiping Type window, select Wipe Disk and click Next.

Step 3. Select the disk you want to erase and click Next. If it is a system disk, you will be told the operation will be executed in reboot mode. Click OK to continue.

Step 4. On the Wiping Method window, select Gutmann and click Start to erase a hard drive for recycling. If it is a system disk, after disk wiping, your computer will not boot from it.

Reset your PC

Another way is to reset your PC and this feature is available in Windows 8 and later systems. The entry is diffferent:

• In Windows 8: Open the charm bar, select Settings > PC Settings > General, and then Restart now under the Advanced startup. Then, in the recovery environment, select Troubleshoot > Reset your PC.

• In Windows 10: Click Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and press Get started under Reset this PC.

• In Windows 11: Click Start > Settings > Recovery and press Reset PC under Reset this PC.

After entering into Reset this PC, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Select Remove everything. It will remove all of your personal files, apps, and settings.

Step 2. Select Local reinstall.

Step 3. In the Additional settings window, click the Change settings link. 

Step 4. Turn on Clean data, and select Confirm. 

Step 5. Click Next in the Additional Settings window. Confirm all the operations listed below and click Reset to remove everything and reinstall Windows.

Destroy hard drive with a hammer or a drill

If you still worry about your data, you can choose to destroy a hard drive for recycling with a hammer or a drill. It is one more extreme, but indeed effective. Please be sure of the following two things:

• The hard disk platter is damaged. The platter is circular disks that look like CDs or DVDs to store data on a disk. If it is damaged, all data are removed.
• The circuit board is broken. Otherwise, others can still access your disk and data. Because it is responsible for operating a hard disk and typically has ROM, NV-RAM, or a chip that controls access to your disk.

So smash the disk and to be sure your data is safe, further check the platter and circuit board. Please be very careful when destroying the hard drive, it is very dangerous.

Summary

You can easily erase a hard drive for recycling with the help of the 3 effective methods above. The easiest way is using disk wiping software to remove everything including the operating system and system files required to start a computer.

If you want to remove everything and reinstall Windows, Reset this PC will be a better choice. And it still gives you a choice to clean data you don’t want others to know. But the most thorough way to make data on the disk disappear is to break the platter and circuit board.