Option 1: Wipe Any Entire Drive
To write zeros over the contents of any drive, all you have to do is perform a full format of the drive. Before you do this, bear in mind that this will completely erase all files on the drive. Also, you can’t perform a full format of your Windows system drive while you’re running Windows from it.
This method is ideal for internal drives that don’t have your operating system installed, USB flash drives, other external storage devices, and any entire partitions you want to erase.
To get started, open File Explorer and locate the drive you want to wipe. Right-click it and select “Format.”
Uncheck “Quick Format” under Format Options. This will ensure Windows 10 or Windows 11 performs a full format instead. According to Microsoft’s documentation, ever since Windows Vista, Windows always writes zeros to the whole disk when performing a full format.
You can change any other formatting options you like here; just ensure “Quick Format” isn’t checked. (If you’re not sure what to choose, just leave the options here on their default settings.)
When you’re ready, click “Start” to format the drive. The process may take some time depending on the size and speed of the disk.
Warning: The format process will erase everything on the drive. Be sure you have a backup of any important files before continuing.
Option 2: Wipe Only Free Space
If you’ve deleted some files from a mechanical hard drive or an external storage device, you might want to wipe only the free space, overwriting it with zeros. This will ensure those deleted files can’t easily be recovered without wiping the entire drive.
Windows 10 and Windows 11 have a way to do this, but you’ll have to visit the command line. The cypher command built into Windows has an option that will wipe a drive’s free space, overwriting it with data. The command will actually run three passes, first writing with zeros, then another type of data, then random data. (However, just one pass should be enough.)
To get started, launch a command-line environment like the Command Prompt or Windows Terminal with administrator permissions. On either Windows 10 or Windows 11, you can right-click the Start button or press Windows+X and click either “Windows PowerShell (Admin)”, “Command Prompt (Admin)”, “Windows Terminal (Admin)”. Choose whichever appears in the menu—any will work.
Run the following command, replacing X with the drive letter of the drive you want to wipe free space for:
cipher /w:X:\
For example, if you want to wipe free space on your D: drive, you’d run the following:
cipher /w:D:\
The command will show its progress at the command line. Wait for it to finish—depending on the speed of your drive and the amount of free space to be overwritten, it may take some time.
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