It’s worth the time when you actually need to erase all traces of past disk contents, but you’re just looking to reuse the disk space, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For that, it’s far easier — minutes, not days — simply to repartition and quick reformat your old drive. Here’s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the drive installed in the new location, open Disk Management (type disk management<\/strong> in the cortana\/search box; select the offered tool). You’ll see a graphic representation of all your system’s drives. Select the target drive (the one you want to repartition); right click on any partition listed on that drive and select Delete volume<\/em><\/strong>. Repeat for all other partitions on that drive until the entire space is shown as Unallocated<\/em><\/strong>. Right-click anywhere on the unallocated space; select New simple volume<\/em><\/strong>, and follow the steps. When it\u2019s offered, select Quick format<\/em>.<\/strong> You\u2019re done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your entire old drive is now fully returned to service. Any data fragments left behind from previous use will eventually get overwritten in the normal course of events; no extra steps needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy your new space!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Permalink: https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=2828<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n COMMENT \/ QUESTION<\/strong> on THIS ITEM?<\/strong> See the<\/em> Comment box<\/strong> at bottom of this page!<\/em> You don’t need to wipe it. Simple re-partitioning and reformatting will make the drive fully available to you. And that\u2019s a very good thing, because wiping a drive involves overwriting every spot on the disk \u2014 in your case, a trillion bytes\u2019 worth. On an average system and HDD, that\u2019d probably take something like two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,30,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-hardware","category-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-JC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3209,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/06\/how-is-it-done-to-format-multiple-pcs-same-model-at-the-same-time-does-a-disk-cloner-work-does-it-handle-everything-drivers-bios\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":0},"title":"“How is it done to format multiple PCs (same model) at the same time? Does a disk cloner work? Does it handle everything — drivers? BIOS?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-08-06","format":false,"excerpt":"Your question touches on two separate things. First, yes: Cloning can perfectly replicate everything that's on a PC's disk. If the PCs are truly identical (as in a managed corporate setting), and the OS is licensed for it, then you only need one Master disk image, which can then be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1204,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/30\/a-reader-asks-how-do-i-recover-data-from-an-undetectable-external-hard-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: How do I recover data from an undetectable external hard drive?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-11-30","format":false,"excerpt":"Q: \"How do I recover data from an undetectable Seagate external hard drive? Is it possible through some software, or is it advisable to get it done through professionals?\" (via Quora) A: It depends on what you mean by \"undetectable.\" For example, there's physical\/electrical undetectability; and undetectability due to logical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":628,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/05\/a-reader-asks-why-does-disk-defrag-fail-despite-plenty-of-room\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":2},"title":"A reader asks: Why does Disk Defrag fail, despite plenty of room?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-10-05","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader Oystein Ravner asks (via the CONTACT link): Hi Fred! I am glad you are back! Problem: W7 Disk Defragmenter. System Disk is successfully analyzed, but with result 41% fragmented. Clicking \u2018Defragment Disk\u2019 leads to nothing. System Disk has capacity 100MB, free 70%, status Healthy. Why is there no defrag\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/win7-clean-up-system-files2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1329,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/13\/a-reader-asks-my-pc-has-an-ssd-and-hdd-installed-will-adding-an-old-slow-hdd-make-my-whole-pc-slow\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":3},"title":"A reader asks: My PC has an SSD; will adding an old, slow HDD make my whole PC slow?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-13","format":false,"excerpt":"Nope --- not if you're smart about how you set it up! Older, slower drives are great for medium-to-long-term data storage --- files that you want to have handy and accessible, but that are not in constant use. Think of things like music, photo, or video collections; backup copies; system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5953,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/24\/inaccessible-backups-and-a-dead-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":4},"title":"Inaccessible backups, and a dead laptop","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2022-01-24","format":false,"excerpt":"How can you repair what you can\u2019t get at? Today\u2019s column covers two problems caused by very different access issues. In one case, a subscriber is locked out of her old, obsolete backup files; she can neither access nor delete them and thus cannot recover the huge chunk of disk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred Langa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2861,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/30\/should-i-encrypt-my-computer-hard-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":5},"title":"“Should I encrypt my computer hard drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-05-30","format":false,"excerpt":"Depending on how you perform the encryption, yes. I don\u2019t recommend whole-drive encryption because the encrypting is effectively part of the operating system. That is convenient, and can work great if the user is careful and knows what they\u2019re doing. But it can lead to lockout issues even if the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2836,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions\/2836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"[seperator]\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/SEPERATOR-short-grey.png?resize=104%2C6\")
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