How to Format Total HDD So Files Can’t Come Back

Did you know that even after deleting, files on the HDD can still be restored?

The usual formatting method doesn’t actually delete the file, it just assumes that the file doesn’t exist so it can be overwritten by another file.

However, if it is not completely overwritten, the file can still be restored easily.

Here’s how to completely format the HDD so that old files can not be returned again. This method is suitable before you sell or give the HDD to someone else.

Surely you don’t want your old data to be seen by others, right?

Important: Make sure you have backed up important files on the disk that you want to format (if any) because after this, the HDD will return as new — empty.

How to completely format HDD

1. Download and install free software MiniTool Partition Wizard. Use this link if you can’t download it.

2. Run the program, right-click on the disk or partition you want to format, then select Wipe Disk.

3. Select Fill Sectors with Zero then OK.

4. Click Yes.

5. Wait for the cleaning process to finish. The duration depends on HDD performance and the amount of data remaining.

When finished, your HDD will be clean of files that were previously stored there. For information, the method zero-filling it is very popular to permanently delete data.

To test it, you can use a free software called Recuva to check if the file can still be restored. Don’t forget to activate Deep Scan when doing scanning.

I myself have applied this method on two different HDDs and the result is still the same — none of the files can be restored by the software recovery like Recuva earlier.