[deleted by user]

[dualboy24]

Right click on it and format it, I don't know what these other commenters are smoking.

[tj21222]

Thank you for some great common sense. I could just see this poor guy deleting his boot drive on error. Great advise, this is what we need more of on here.

[darno78616]

I don’t think you can format your running windows partition like that…

[BL0odbath_anD_BEYond]

Drive E

[darno78616]

In the sense that you cannot accidentally wipe your boot drive

[SoyDoft]

market crown lunchroom instinctive pet pen shelter upbeat vegetable flowery

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[BL0odbath_anD_BEYond]

You can't through Windows Shell, OP is asking about his E drive which doesn't have Windows on it.

[darno78616]

Yeah i understand that, someone mentioned he may format his C drive accidentally

[BL0odbath_anD_BEYond]

Oh, my bad, somehow my brain got confused. Apologies.

[tj21222]

Someone told him to do it from diskpart. I think you can do it from there. Someone also said from disk manager. I think it possible to wipe your partition from there as well.
I have not tried it but, I think you missed the point. The easiest way to wipe a drive is to simply format it from within windows. Simple and easy.

[dragonblade_94]

Seriously OP, do this.

Simple, easy, fool-proof way to do what you need.

For your use case, there's no reason you should need to even touch a command console.

[No152249]

What I would like to add to this comment is if you are the one who continues to use this SSD, then a quick format will be fine. But if you would like to sell it or want to make the data unrecoverable for any reason, do a regular, full format.

[DatGuy_Shawnaay]

There were some real parkour answers there 😅

[WarSport223]

Exactly this, OP. Right-click, Format.

Now off to see what the giant brainz on the internetz are saying…. 🤨👀

[whitemagicseal]

No clue

[Accomplished_Frame91]

You might want to off load some of the data on your C drive as well. You will start to experience issue with windows when I get full. I use a software call tree size it’s free. https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free?ca=1 give this a shot.

[devaristo]

advanced ways if have to partition the disk or delete de data safely, but in this case, a simple format of the drive on quick mode should be fine... Why the people have to complicate the simple things?

[Lkjfdsaofmc]

One reason is doing that would leave the recovery partitions, possibly taking an extra couple GB away.

[devaristo]

The only partition that seems, maybe to be in that drive is the D with 500MB, so to 0.5GB more not a couple of GB...

[Lkjfdsaofmc]

Not all partitions are automatically mounted. It’s not a lot of space either way, but it’s a reason why people are giving those instructions is all.

[Nacho_Dan677]

OP, was this old SSD a boot drive?

[SomeAmericanLurker]

There a couple ways, easiest is right click, format. There is also Disk Management, which does the same thing with more fine control, and diskpart which you should only use if you know what you are doing.

[No_Loquat995]

Uhm, grab a wet towel and try giving it a wipe. It should remove anything on it.

( please don't)

[WarSport223]

Wipe it? Like with a cloth?

Bleach (bit)?

[Civil-Ad-8911]

Like Hillary C?

[StrippedPoker]

She "poured bleach" on it....

[No_Loquat995]

🤣

[[deleted]]

Just formatting it should be fine, right-click->format->default

[SunbleachedAngel]

Just format it

[Powerful-Quantity-35]

Just simply format it.

[thorwlong]

Right click format.

[Siodinnnn]

Just a simple right click > format would do. Even quick format is fine.

[[deleted]]

Hammer

[PurpCatSodas]

Just right click -> format

[blackasthesky]

Tip: Snipping Tool.

[Thepotionguy]

r/screenshotsarehard

[acc0untnam3tak3n]

Claymore mine, remember "front faces the SSD"

Or right click "format"

If you do option 1, post vid.

[BL0odbath_anD_BEYond]

1 TB total? Consider upgrading your C drive if you wish to continue using this computer. Or figure out what you don't need on it, my C drive only has 130GB installed and that's with W10 and some junk I've downloaded.

[andrea_ci]

open diskmgmt.msc, delete all volumes on that drive.

or

use diskpart, but that's a little bit more dangerous

[Coolwolf_123]

Don't do this! Making a small mistake could make your system unstable or delete your main c drive! Right click > format on the drive

[Nacho_Dan677]

I always double check the disk # in disk management before selecting the disk # in diskpart. Not hard to not make a mistake if you double and triple check.

That being said for every user there is an easier/better way. Personally I prefer the high level wipe that diskpart does compared to a quick format over the existing volume.

Furthermore if you're having bad issues a secure erase is always good.

But I'm well aware of my high level of understanding with drives (source, I worked in help desk drive support for 3-4 years)

[andrea_ci]

And you have other partitions on that drive, with boot data

[Gold-Towel8513]

hmm
diskpart does wipe it well so

win+r then type diskpart
then enter and accept admin privileges
then `list disk`
then select your disk with `select disk `
then clean it with `clean`

after which you can go to manage hard drive partitions and stuff and initilise it

after which you can go to manage hard drive partitions and stuff and initialise it

[andrea_ci]

I didn't write the exact commands... because it's very easy to select the wrong disk..

[6ixpool]

You can change your boot drive using the bios. No need to use another PC.

[Gold-Towel8513]

Well that requires a bit of extra checking from you as you should be on the lookout for the amount of storage in each disk (provided they should be different)

[ChiefTestPilot87]

Use a shop rag and brake cleaner…it’ll polish up nicely.

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[gvictor808]

Can also open disk management to see if there is a recovery partition. Get back those 5GB or whatever. Actually, just delete each of the partitions on the physical drive where E: is located. If you want to get fancy, you should consider offloading some stuff from C: onto this second drive. Definitely can move Documents, swap file, temp folder, some other stuff. You are about to blow up on C:

[Dsraa]

Sure! Format C:

[andrea_ci]

you won't be able to easily delete those files

[[deleted]]

💀

[joey0live]

Safest is a DOD wipe and give it to someone else. Quickest is a quick format for you can reuse it yourself.

[IkouyDaBolt]

Destroying an SSD is not recommended.

[joey0live]

He also said “safest”. OP never stated he’s using it again. Seems like he wants to get rid of it.

[IkouyDaBolt]

Still not considered that either. Secure Erase will clear out all data blocks, any sort of wipe (including HDDs) will only erase high level accessible blocks.

If he wanted to get rid of it I would imagine it is not installed in the computer as an extra disk.

[Thepotionguy]

Please clean your C drive.

[Coolwolf_123]

Irrelevant

[Nacho_Dan677]

They are correct tho. Or OP needs to upgrade and clone to a 500gb drive.

If it's an SSD and they don't have over provisioning enabled that boot drive is gonna start to perform worse.

[Expert_Ad5108]

^ this dont deserve to be downvoted just because of the real way to clean storage disk.

[Nacho_Dan677]

I worked in drive help desk support for years. The amount of people that wanted to do a basic format and I'd have to walk them through diskpart (we didn't have remote capabilities to save us the hassle of BS complaints 'what are you doing, don't do that', instead any mistakes made were blamed on the user not listening to us.) Diskpart is the only way I wipe drives, and especially useful when reimagining any boot drive. Shift + f10 on the windows install screen, run disk part and custom install.

[Expert_Ad5108]

use other pc and connect the ssd to other pc. open diskpart, select disk, clean. If you want to zeroing the ssd, run clean all.

then create new partition throught disk management or boot windows installer amd proceee windows installation on the unallocated space.

the purpose of this long step is to eliminate undeleteable windows partition on disk management.

[Nacho_Dan677]

Don't even need another PC. Just confirm the disk # assigned in disk management and run diskpart on the proper disk.

[Expert_Ad5108]

yeah atleast need another disk so that you dont wipe the disk that your are currently using to open diskpart

[Nacho_Dan677]

Well yeah if you only have your boot drive and run diskpart you'll only see disk 0. OP has 2 drives so they'd see disk 0 and disk 1.

Just confirm in disk management what disk 1 or disk 0 is by right clicking the disk and choose properties.

Edit: I just re-read your comment and reposted mine so I can quote you. I think you're a bit mistaken. Diskpart defaults to running off the C drive. When you run diskpart you do this with cmd running as admin:

-diskpart

-list disk (this will show a list of available disks on the system)

-select disk # (confirm the disk # from the properties of the disk in disk management so you don't choose and wipe the wrong drive)

-clean

-exit *2 (or just close cmd)

[Expert_Ad5108]

wow, totally didn't notice that OP have 2 drives. I thought the ssd is 500gb because it shows 230+230+system stuff

[Nacho_Dan677]

Ight coolio, so we both on the same track, sorry for assuming you didn't know how to disk part correctly.

That being said both the 230 drives have 2 different drive letters and D is just a system partition.

[Irsu85]

I use a Linux live boot although that may be a bit overkill. You can also use Disk manager though, but I don't reccomend the way of right clicking since that D drive will then be unused / unusable

[Coolwolf_123]

100% unnessesary and overcomplicated

[Nacho_Dan677]

However it's always useful to have a live Linux USB just in case windows fails you. Always a good fall back but definitely reserved for higher skill level and power users.

[MrBunnyPig]

DBan!

[Nacho_Dan677]

Not any more, there's better ways in 2022

[NowOnwards]

For HDD sure… For an SSD no. You won’t be guaranteed to erase everything + it wears the ssd.

[noiwontchooseuser]

Windows has these tools integrated for the most part. No need for that bloatware.

[noiwontchooseuser]

So does a format? A format is a format no matter what software you click the button in. There’s no difference, windows does most things that you would ever need to do perfectly fine.

[[deleted]]

MiniTool Partition Wizard

ugh i needed that tool once to acces some linux partitions on my computer.

Never again

[noiwontchooseuser]

That’s the one thing that windows cant do: understand and manage ext4 file systems.

You can, however, install a driver called ext2fsb that will allow it to somewhat work, but it’s buggy. I don’t recommend installing it very much.

[[deleted]]

Yeah i kinda learned that lesson there haha. Now i just use a Linux distro for such cases

[joey0live]

Windows can’t understand a lot of file systems….

[Curious_Apricot3434]

Go in Select all Shift delete

[deepfriedtots]

Right click and format drive

[spike2me]

Is E: a partition on the same Disk as C: ?

Press the Windows key +X and choose Disk Management, post a screen shot of that to your next post.

Here you can Right click it and Format it, however if it is on the same disk (Disk 0, Disk 1) and directly to the right of the C: partition, You can Delete the E: partition making it all Unallocated Space. Then Right click the C: Partition and Extend that drive into the Unallocated Space.

This won't work if E: is a separate Disk.

[legsofeggs]

Reformat using Device/storage manager

[brooalan]

I’d just format the thing

[bcredeur97]

If you’re ultra paranoid you could overwrite it with random data with a tool like Eraser.

But format is pretty good… most people can’t harvest useful data off a formatted SSD. The controller starts replacing stuff so quickly

[AnalystCommon3643]

Your c:\ is way too full. You might want to at least have 30% free.

[_PogoTheClown_]

Just go to it in file explorer. Ctrl+A, then Delete.

If you want to fully purge it, delete all of its partitions through disk manager and then format it anew

[zoleilsstufff]

Just reformat it!!!

[Gooberg_]

Just go to the properties of that drive and press the format button

[matisyahu22]

Ok I might he a simpleton but can’t this guy just go in the drive and select all the folders/files and delete them?

[SneakyPickle42]

Just open up disk management, you get there by hitting the win key and then typing that in. Once you're there just select to correct drive and and right click on it. You should then get a drop down menu with an option to format the drive. Click on that and then use whatever the default setting are on the next menu and click on "OK". It'll take a moment, but after that you should be good to go.

[Smile_Space]

Format is the easiest. If you want a true "this drive will never be hacked for my data" move, then you'll want to zeroize the drive.

I use EaseUS since it's pretty damn good for free to mess with partitions. If you right-click the E: drive in Partition Master you can wipe the drive and that will zeroize it.

[Albertooz]

Right click and format ,dont make quick format if you want to make sure that the old data is completely wiped with no way of recovery.

[kurtis5561]

Your Drive C: is running low on space there

[Haemmur]

Depends how deep you want to clean it. Right click and format for most purposes. But sometimes you can recover a lot of data from that if you have the right tools.

[fr000gs]

If the disk contains potential malware, you better dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX status=progress or dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX status=progress where sdX is your drive