Windows 10: How to Clean Off Information on Extra Drives

I am running a Dell Inspiron 3647 Desktop with, Windows 10 Home Edition, with an Intel Pentium CPU G3240 @3.10GHz
Memory is 8 GB
64 Bit Operating System
But my question is not about my computer, but about several extra Internal ATA Hard Drives that I've accumulated over the years and I would like to clean the information off of them and sell them on E-Bay. I need to know the best way to do that! Can anyone give me some ideas. It has been a several years since I've played with the inside of a computer and am not familiar with the new procedures.
Any help is appreciated,


:)

 

Windows 10 Version 1709 Update Disc space required

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the response. I've followed that route a few times now. I've used a memory stick so stage 2 is fine but the problem i'm having is with stage 1 as it keeps asking for an extra 3GB more free space on the C drive that I can provide without deleting
any windows files.

I've tried disc clean up and removing old windows files but there is nothing left to clean. Currently I don't know how to provide the extra 3GB needed on the C drive?

Thanks

 

Recovery Parition missing in Windows 10. Cannot Refresh System to Windows 8.

Well at least you have an extra drive now

Put all of your personal files on the older drive and clean install win-8 or 8.1 on the new.

 

Hey dino84,
Check out a USB external enclosure. I have the Sabrent EC-DFLT *Smile
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_1603...nid=2886899011

 

To clean off all info on a hard drive, right-click on the drive in File Explorer and choose Format. In the window that opens, uncheck Quick because this will result in a more thorough scour. It will take a long time though, several hours for 1 TB. This should thoroughly remove all data.

 

I use eraser when I want to securely delete my data. If you want to try it scroll down on the page to get to the download links. Download – Eraser

 

Formatting a drive is not a very secure way to delete personal files. Recover Files from Formatted Hard Drive and Partition.

 

All you have to do is install ccleaner & 3 HDD's to be wiped at a time. Use Drive Wiper & choose Very Complex Overwrite (35 FULL passes). Best way to do it securely.

Or you can fully wipe the drive once and copy/paste a trash image over & over until it fills up the drive storage & full wipe once again. Here are 2 massive images that are over 80 MB each The Video Game Atlas - Personal Computer Maps

 

Yep, One easy way to do a secure erase is to download a live linux system which implements the drivparm command for ATA secure erase.

PartEdMagic is one such distro and it automates things such that it's pretty easy to use ... just be SURE you have selected the correct drive.