How to Erase Software From a Hard Drive

Software is stored on a computer's hard drive to be accessed and used by the computer's processor. In an operating system such as Windows XP, you can uninstall software from a hard drive when you no longer want to use it. However, the uninstall process does not completely remove the software or its data from the hard drive; it simply removes references to the software so the operating system no longer recognizes it. If you want to erase software from a hard drive more thoroughly, you must use a specialized software-erasing utility designed for your particular operating system. One such utility for use with Windows operating systems is the freeware application SDelete, developed by Sysinternals and available for download on the Microsoft website.

Instructions

1. Open an Internet browser and navigate to the SDelete utility homepage on the Microsoft website. Click the "Download SDelete" link, and save the file to your preferred download directory. Close the browser when the download is complete.

2. Open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to your preferred download directory. Double-click the "SDelete.zip" icon, and extract the compressed file using your computer's default extraction software, such as the Windows Extraction Wizard.

3. Double-click the SDelete product icon in the extracted SDelete folder. This opens a license agreement dialog box. Click the "Accept" button in the dialog box to accept the license agreement.

4. Click the "Start" button, and then click the "Run" icon on the Start menu. Type "cmd" in the "Open" text field in the Run window, and then click the "OK" button. This opens a command prompt window.

5. Change the directory in the command prompt window to your preferred download directory. For example, if your preferred download directory is c:\downloads, type the following:
   cd \downloads

6. Type the following at the command prompt: sdelete -z
   Then press the "Enter" key.
   This starts the software-erasing procedure. The SDelete utility reports its percentage completion in 1-percent intervals.

7. Wait for the utility to report that the process is 100 percent complete. Depending on the size of your hard drive, this could take several hours. Type "exit" at the command prompt, and press the "Enter" key to complete the process.

Tips & Warnings

• The directions described apply only to using SDelete in Windows XP. Different directions apply when using SDelete in other operating systems.

References

• SDelete home page on Microsoft website