Curious about how to clear your SSD on Windows 11/10? Here's what Diskpart clean all entails and how to execute this command on an SSD, along with a more straightforward approach to thoroughly and effectively erase your solid-state drive. Follow this detailed guide to discover what suits you best.

Maybe you're considering donating, selling, or disposing of your old computer after buying a new one. To avoid potential risks, it's wise to erase all data from the disk first, as consequences of data and privacy breaches can be severe—criminals might misuse your personal information. Some people think about using the Diskpart clean all command to wipe the hard drive.

What Exactly Does Diskpart Clean All Do?

Diskpart, a built-in tool in Windows, is designed to manage disks or partitions, including deletion, creation, formatting, and erasure. When it comes to clearing an HDD or SSD, Diskpart provides two commands—clean and clean all. Both commands can completely erase the entire hard drive, rendering it unallocated and uninitialized.

While comparing "Diskpart clean all vs clean," they differ significantly. Here's a notable distinction:

Diskpart clean: This command removes all partitions on an HDD or SSD. However, it merely marks the data as deleted without overwriting the drive. This means that data recovery software could potentially retrieve the deleted disk data.

Diskpart clean all: This command securely wipes all content on the hard drive by overwriting every sector and zeroing out the drive. Consequently, no data recovery software can retrieve lost data.

In this regard, the clean all command offers a higher security level, ensuring data irretrievability, which aligns with your requirements. Besides this key difference, there are additional distinctions between these two commands, which you can explore in this tutorial—Diskpart Clean vs Clean All: Choosing the Right Way to Wipe Disks.

How to Use Diskpart Clean All on SSD/HDD

The clean all command in Diskpart plays a crucial role in safely and efficiently clearing a hard disk. So, how can you run this command on your PC to ensure no one can exploit your disk data? Follow this step-by-step guide with visual illustrations to learn how to run Diskpart clean all on an SSD/HDD.

Preparations

Before proceeding, keep two things in mind:

1. Note the disk number: Right-click on the Start button in Windows 11/10 and select Disk Management to check the disk number of the SSD or HDD you intend to erase. Remember it to avoid accidentally wiping the wrong disk.

2. Since the disk wiping process deletes everything, ensure you've backed up any important data. For data backup, we suggest MiniTool ShadowMaker, a reliable backup software for various types of backups and synchronization. Download it and follow the guide—How to Backup PC to External Hard Drive/Cloud in Win11/10.

Steps for Diskpart Clean All SSD/HDD

Here’s how to use Diskpart clean all to wipe your entire hard drive:

Step 1: Open elevated Command Prompt—press Win R, type cmd, press Ctrl Shift Enter, and confirm in the UAC window.

Step 2: Type Diskpart and press Enter to launch the utility.

Step 3: Enter the following commands sequentially, pressing Enter after each:

list disk

select disk #: Replace # with the disk number of the target hard drive.

clean all: This command zeroes out the entire selected disk, making the data unrecoverable.

An Alternative Solution: MiniTool System Booster

Although Diskpart clean all is effective for clearing a hard drive, you might encounter issues due to its complexity or slowness. This is why some users wonder about the duration of Diskpart clean all.

While it doesn't take forever, it may require approximately an hour per 320GB to finish, especially during a secure erase. Additionally, if you’re not familiar with command-line operations, you risk making errors that could cause system problems.

For a simpler solution, consider using MiniTool System Booster, a PC optimization tool with additional features such as cleaning up the system, boosting CPU performance, freeing up memory, and automating maintenance tasks. It also includes a Disk Scrubber tool to securely wipe data from a drive.

Using MiniTool System Booster’s intuitive interface, even beginners can easily perform disk erasures with just a few clicks. Don’t hesitate—give MiniTool System Booster, an alternative to Diskpart clean all, a try.

Step 1: Access the Performance page by double-clicking the MiniTool System Booster icon.

Step 2: From the dropdown menu, select Toolbox and then click Drive Scrubber.

Step 3: Select the drive to wipe and choose a wiping method, then click WIPE SELECTED DRIVE. The tool will erase every byte of data from the selected drive. Repeat this step for each partition of the hard drive except the system partition.

Conclusion

Now you understand what Diskpart clean all does and how to use it to clear your SSD/HDD. Whether to use Diskpart clean all or MiniTool System Booster depends on your preferences and needs. If you aim to boost your old laptop or desktop, MiniTool System Booster is a great choice.

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