How to Completely Erase a Dell Hard Drive

Completely erasing a Dell hard drive removes access to all data from the hard drive and allows the user to customize the software environment to his own specifications. This process is often carried out after the purchase of a new computer to remove preinstalled software applications or trial software that takes up valuable hard drive space. This is also done to remove personal data from a hard drive before disposing of or donating it.

Instructions

1. Double-click the "My Computer" icon located on the Windows desktop.

2. Right-click the hard drive to be completely erased and select the "Format..." heading from the context menu.

3. Enter a name into the text box beside the "Volume Label" heading.

4. Leave all other values at their default settings.

5. Click the radio button to the left of the "Quick Format" heading.

6. Click the "Start" button to begin the disk erasing process. This removes access to all data from the drive. This process usually completes in less than 30 minutes depending on the size and speed of the hard drive.

References

• Microsoft: Microsoft: Create and Format a Hard Disk Partition