- Windows Hard Drive Manager
- Windows Hard Drive Compression
- Manage Hard Drives Windows 10
- Windows Hard Drive Encryption
- Hard Drives Preloaded With Windows
Dec 31, 2020 If you've installed a new hard drive on a computer that is running Windows or want to change its partitions, use the Windows Disk Management tool. However, if you still prefer a command line interface to set up drives, you can use the diskpart command. Mar 04, 2020 What you do now depends on which version of Windows you're using: Windows 10 & 8: Choose Check followed by Scan drive, and then skip down to Step 8. Windows 7, Vista, & XP: Choose Check now and then continue with Step 6.
Summary :
How do I wipe my hard drive clean and reinstall Windows? This question is often asked by a large number of people. Do you want to reinstall Windows 10 without any data loss? This post of MiniTool will provide you with a step-by-step guide and some useful tips.
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Before You Do
A lot of users are troubled by many common issues such as system crash, virus attack, blue screen, black screen, faulty hard drive, a slow Windows computer, etc. Under these situations, you may need to reinstall Windows 10.
How do I wipe my hard drive clean and reinstall Windows effectively? To help you wipe and reinstall Windows 10 smoothly, please make the following preparations:
- Prepare a Windows 10 installation CD/DVD disc or USB drive. Click here to download the Windows 10 media creation tool. And then use the tool to create Windows 10 installation USB flash drive or CD/DVD disc.
- Back up all important files on your hard drive. There is no doubt that a clean Windows reinstallation will delete all the data on your hard drive. To avoid any data loss, make sure that you have a backup in advance.
- Remove all unnecessary peripheral devices. Here you’d better remove all peripheral devices including earphones, card reader, printers, and removable hard drive. This is because connecting these devices may lead to some errors.
Have you made all the preparations? If it is, you can follow the step-by-step guide below to erase hard drive and reinstall Windows.
How Do I Wipe My Hard Drive Clean and Reinstall Windows
How do I wipe and reinstall Windows 10? As mentioned above, there are different situations that may need you to reinstall Windows 10. Here you can refer to the following 2 cases to reinstall Windows 10. If your computer just works very slowly but still bootable, you can refer to case 1. If your Windows system fails to boot due to system crash, blue screen and damaged hard drive, please refer to case 2.
Now, let’s see how to reinstall Windows 10.
Case 1: Your Windows Can Boot Normally
If your Windows 10 computer still can boot smoothly, please follow the steps below to reset your Windows PC. For that:
Step 1. Press the Win + I keys to open the Settings app, and then scroll down to the bottom of the window and click on the Update & Security option.
Step 2. In the pop-up window, navigate to the Recovery section at the left pane and click on the Get started button under the Reset this PC option at the right side of the window.
Step 3. Then you will see the 2 options whether Keep my files or Remove everything. Here you can choose one based on your needs.
Windows Hard Drive Manager
Note: The first option will remove apps and settings, but keeps your personal files. The second option will remove all of your personal files, apps, and settings and speed more time to complete.
Step 4. Now, follow the on-screen prompts to complete this resetting PC operation.
Case 2. Your Windows Fails to Boot
If your Windows computer fails to start or you want to erase hard drive and reinstall Windows 10, you can follow this full guide. To do so, follow the steps below carefully.
Part 1. Create a Windows 10 Installation USB Drive
Step 1. Run the Windows 10 media creation tool that you downloaded from Microsoft, and then accept the software license terms.
Step 2. Select the Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC option and click on Next.
Step 3. Then you need to select the Language, Windows Edition, and Architecture versions based on your own choice. Alternatively, you can use the recommended options for this PC. Click on Next to go on.
Step 4. In the pop-up window, choose the USB flash drive to create a Windows 10 installation media. Or you can choose the ISO file to burn it to a CD/DVD media later by yourself. And then click on Next.
Note: Bear in mind that all the data on the USB flash drive will be formatted, so please back up important files in advance. Besides, you need to prepare a USB flash drive with at least 8GB capacity.
Step 5. Then select your USB flash drive from the list of removable drives and click on Next to continue.
Step 6. Now, this tool will start downloading Windows 10 and all its available updates to your USB flash drive. Then you need to wait for some time. Once this process succeeds, you will receive a message saying Your USB flash drive is ready. Click on Finish to exit the window.
Now, a Windows installation USB flash drive has been created and you can use it to boot your Windows PC.
Part 2. Reinstall Windows 10 on Your PC
Let’s see how to reinstall system 10 with this Windows 10 bootable USB flash drive. Skyrim minimum requirements. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
Step 1. Plug the bootable USB drive into your Windows PC and then boot your computer from this drive.
Tip: If your PC can’t boot from the USB drive, you need to enter the BIOS and set the USB drive as the first boot sequence by using the arrow keys.
Step 2. Once your computer boots from the USB drive successfully, you will enter the Windows Setup screen. Here you need to confirm the Language, Time and currency format, and Keyboard or input method to install. After that, click on Next.
Step 3. Click on the Install now button and enter the license key.
Step 4. Tick the checkbox for I accept the license terms and click on Next.
Step 5. Then you will see 2 options: Upgrade Install and Custom Install. Here we take the latter for example.
Step 6. Select a drive to install Windows 10 and click on Next.
Step 7. Now, Windows 10 will be installed automatically. You need to wait for some time.
How do I wipe my hard drive clean and reinstall Windows? I believe that you will reinstall Windows 10 smoothly according to the above full guide. However, the above method will sacrifice all the data on your hard drive.
So, how to reinstall Windows 10 without any data loss? Please keep reading.
An alternative to Wipe Hard Drive Clean and Reinstall Windows 10
To help you reinstall Windows 10 without data loss, it’s highly recommended that you use MiniTool Partition Wizard. It is a powerful partition management tool that can not only be used to erase hard drive and reinstall Windows but does many things such as convert FAT to NTFS without data loss, rebuild MBR, resize partition, change cluster size, and so forth.
The following part will introduce you to how to erase hard drive and reinstall Windows 10 using MiniTool Partition Wizard respectively.
Wipe Hard Drive
In this part, we will show you how to wipe a hard drive using MiniTool Partition Wizard. The Wipe Disk feature can help you erase the unwanted data permanently. It is very simple to operate with just a few clicks.
Step 1. Install this data erasing software on your computer and run it to enter its main interface.
Step 2. Select the hard drive that you want to wipe and click on the Wipe Disk feature from the left pane.
Step 3. Select a wipe method from the list and click on OK to go on.
Tip: The higher the wiping level you select, the more time the wiping process will take.
Step 4. Click on Apply to execute this change.
Windows Hard Drive Compression
Once the wiping process completes, you will find that all the data on the hard drive has been erased permanently. In addition, this tool can help you reinstall Windows 10 without losing data.
Migrate Windows 10 to a New Drive
If you want to reinstall Windows 10 without any data loss, MiniTool Partition Wizard is what you are looking for. This powerful software can help you migrate Windows 10 OS to a new drive easily. Here’s how to reinstall Windows 10 on a new drive.
Tip: Since the free edition does not support this function, you need to install the MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro or more advanced edition for the migration. Click here to know more about edition comparison.
Step 1. Connect the drive that’s used to save the Windows to your computer.
Step 2. Launch this software to get the main interface and click on the Migrate OS to SSD/HD Wizard feature from the left pane.
Step 3. In the pop-up window, select the Option B to copy the system required partitions only and click on Next to go on.
Step 4. Select the hard drive connected to your computer and click on Next. Then you will see a warning message saying all the data on the target disk will be destroyed. Click on Yes to confirm this operation.
Note: Please back up all important data on the hard drive in advance.
Step 5. Select a copy option based on your needs and click on Next to continue.
Tip: If you want to migrate OS to a disk larger than 2TB, you can select the Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk option.
Step 6. Click on the Finish button in the next window.
Step 7. Click on Apply to execute the pending operations.
Once all the above steps are finished, you can connect the target drive to your Windows PC and set your computer to boot from the drive.
Wrapping Up
How do I wipe and reinstall Windows 10? This post walks you through detailed steps based on 2 different cases. In addition, you can utilize MiniTool Partition Wizard to erase hard drive and reinstall Windows 10 with ease.
If you have any questions about this software, you can send us an e-mail via [email protected]. We also appreciate any opinions about this topic in the comment area.
How Do I Wipe My Hard Drive Clean and Reinstall Windows FAQ
Does emptying recycle bin permanently delete files?
In theory, you empty the Recycle Bin and the files will be deleted from the hard drive permanently. However, only if you haven’t save new data on the hard drive to overwrite, it is very possible that the deleted files can be recovered by a professional data recovery software.
Does a factory reset delete everything on the computer?
The answer depends on which option you select to reset this PC. When performing a factory reset, you will have 2 options. If you select the Keep my files option, it will remove the apps and settings but keep your personal files.
Yes, it is. To avoid any privacy leakage, it’s highly recommended that you use a professional eraser to wipe hard drive before recycling. This operation will erase the date on your PC permanently.
Here you need to prepare a password reset disk and follow the steps below to unlock computer without a password.
- Insert the password reset disk to your computer.
- Start your computer and click on the Reset Password link on the lock screen.
- Click on the Next button to change or remove the password.
Summary :
How to ghost a hard drive for data protection? Ghosting disk is pretty easy. Here is the best ghost hard drive software - MiniTool ShadowMaker, helping you to easily make a ghost image of Windows 10/8/7 and clone a hard drive to keep PC safe.
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In a nutshell, hard drive failure always happens on your computer because of virus infection, hacker attack, sudden power outage, bad sector, and more. Then, unexpected data loss turns up.
For system disk, if the disk gets corrupted, the system is very easy to get corrupted. Well then, what if your computer fails to start up? The only thing you can do to fix this issue is to reinstall the operating system unless you ghost hard drive Windows 7/8/10 in advance.
In the event of accidents, things will become easier: the backup is available to restore system and data.
On the other hand, to ghost Windows hard drive to another hard disk can be counted as a good solution for disk upgrade when the system disk is too smaller and older.
How to ghost a hard drive for your PC? Go to the next part.
How to Ghost Hard Drive Windows 10/8/7
In order to guarantee data security, coming up with a good strategy to ghost drive is urgent for many users. For backing up data, the simple and straightforward way is worth mentioning.
And here, we will tell you two options to ghost hard disk for Windows 7: image and clone.
How to Make a Ghost Image of Windows 7/8/10
This option refers to creating a disk image. Then, what is a hard disk image? To be specific, this way will create a complete copy or snapshot of the contents of your hard drive, and all data will be compressed in an image.
Actually, you can ghost more than one image and save them to an external hard drive. When hard drive failure or system corruption comes up, your computer can still go back to a correct status by the restoration from the image you have created.
Use MiniTool ShadowMaker to Ghost Computer
How to create ghost image of Windows 10/8/7? As far as we are concerned, the most efficient way is to use a piece of professional and free ghost image software to ghost hard drive.
To satisfy users’ needs, many kinds of corresponding software are developed by many organizations. Thereinto, shoddy software can cost much time to make ghost images but the result is disappointing.
Luckily, MiniTool ShadowMaker, Windows backup software, is coming to do a favor and avoid this situation.
Get MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition (30-day free trial) from the following button and install it on your computer for ghosting a hard drive. Or you can upgrade to Professional Edition after the valid expiration date.
When reading here, you probably ask us why use this ghost hard drive software. To put it simply, this program is reliable and all-in-one for you to create an image of the file, system, partition or disk in Windows 7/8/10. When it is necessary, the image is helpful to restore file, system, partition or disk. This free ghost image software can guarantee your data security to a great extent.
How to create a ghost image of Windows 7/8/10 step by step? Let’s look at the details.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker you have installed on your computer.
Step 2: Then, this ghost hard drive software can navigate to the Home page.
Just do as the guide language says:
- If there is no backup created by MiniTool ShadowMaker, please click SET UP BACKUP button to start data protection right now.
- If there is a backup, it is time to manage the backup task in Manage.
Here we take the first situation as an example.
Step 3: In Backup page, you know MiniTool ShadowMaker will ghost Windows system by default: all the system drives required for Windows OS to run have been checked.
Tip: If you only want to create a Windows ghost image or only ghost Windows 7/8/10 with this computer ghosting software, directly go to Step 4.
But in this post, your aim is to ghost hard drive. Hence, please enter the Source section, select a disk from the following combo box and choose all the partitions on the selected disk. Note that we choose a system disk.
Hot article:How to Backup Computer to External Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7
Step 4: After selecting the source drives, you need to go to the Destination section. Here four options are offered, and you should choose a path to save the image based on your needs.
If you want to ghost hard drive to SSD, you can choose an SSD as the storage destination. Additionally, an external hard drive, USB flash drive, HDD, network or NAS are also available.
Step 5: After completing all the selections, click Back up Now and then MiniTool ShadowMaker will begin to ghost hard drive Windows 10/8/7 by entering Manage tab by itself.
From the above figure, you can see three small tools: Schedule, Scheme, and Options. Well then, what are the functions of them?
1. Options: After clicking this button, you can make many advanced settings for the hard drive backup, including select one image creation mode, set file size, decide file compression level, add a comment for the backup and more.
2. Schedule: This feature is off by default. If you want to create an automatic backup for the backup image of the system disk, please turn on it. Then, choose one schedule setting when there is a need.
3. Scheme: It is still disabled by default. Turn it on , and then decide one backup scheme.
So far, we have told you how to create a ghost image of Windows 10/8/7 step by step. While system disk failure or system crash occurs, use the image file you have ghosted to restore your computer to the previous date.
Kindly remind: How can you restore your PC from an external hard drive? Refer to this post - Easily Restore System Image from External Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7.
If you are looking for ghost software for Windows 7/8/10 to ghost hard drive to SSD/HDD/.etc., please free download MiniTool ShadowMaker to have a try at once.
How to Ghost Hard Drive to SSD
How to ghost a computer besides creating ghost images in Windows 7/8/10?
Additionally, there is another way to ghost hard drive for your computer, that is to clone hard drive to USB external drive or SSD. In simple terms, a clone means a direct copy bit by bit.
Like that, all the data on the destination drive is identical to the data on the source drive. Everything (from the PC desktop to the device drivers, or from the OS to the hidden directory files) is copied identically.
By this way, all the contents can be directly backed up to another disk. Well then, how can you clone a hard drive to SSD?
![Windows hard drive diagnostic Windows hard drive diagnostic](https://cdn.windowsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/hard-drives-windows-10.jpg)
Manage Hard Drives Windows 10
Use MiniTool ShadowMaker to Ghost Disk
To ghost hard drive to SSD, the best effective way is to use a piece of dedicated ghost hard drive software. It is good news that MiniTool ShadowMaker also offers you a powerful feature called Clone Disk.
This feature can help you to effectively clone hard drive of the computer including laptop and desktop to a new hard drive, such as SSD or HDD. Free download this hard disk to hard disk ghost software on your Windows 10/8/7 computer to have a try now!
The steps on ghosting a hard drive are below:
Step 1: Launch this clone hard drive software you have downloaded on the PC. And then, go to the Tools page. Just click Clone Disk to ghost hard drive to SSD.
Step 2: In the following interface, click the corresponding section to select an original hard drive and a target hard disk.
Note:
• Usually, we ghost a system disk to an external hard drive for a safe backup or disk upgrade.
• Besides, the target disk should be large enough so as to hold all data on the source disk.
• Usually, we ghost a system disk to an external hard drive for a safe backup or disk upgrade.
• Besides, the target disk should be large enough so as to hold all data on the source disk.
This post will walk you through how to clone hard drive to smaller SSD with ease in Windows 10/8/7. Get the MiniTool Programs for a try now.
Step 3: Then MiniTool ShadowMaker enters the process page where you can see the rate of progress. And you need to wait for a few minutes, so be patient.
Step 4: When the operation is completed, you can receive some information as shown below:
You should make sure either the original hard drive or the target disk is disconnected to your computer. Or else, the Windows operating system may mark one disk as offline.
Tip: Nowadays, “how to clone a laptop hard drive” is a common question. How to do it? The laptop only supports one hard disk. So, please connect your target disk to the laptop via a USB cable. Then, do as the above guidance shows you. After hard drive cloning, remove the target disk. Like that, you complete ghosting hard drive.
Want to ghost hard drive Windows 10/8/7 by cloning method with MiniTool ShadowMaker? Just get the Trial Edition of this ghost clone software to have a try.
Employ MiniTool Partition Wizard to Ghost Disk
MiniTool Solution Ltd. has developed another piece of HDD clone software – MiniTool Partition Wizard which gains great popularity from many computer users all over the world.
By means of this all-in-one partition manager, you can manage your disk or partition well. Among its many powerful features, its two features - Copy Disk and Migrate OS to SSD/HD are available to ghost hard drive for Windows 7/8/10.
The former is used to clone the system disk as well as a data disk. And the latter can help to clone the entire system disk or only migrate OS drives to another disk. Here we take the former as an example.
How to ghost a hard drive with the best ghost software? Just get this free ghost drive software to clone hard drive to USB external drive or SSD by following the steps. If you need to deal with the system disk, the Free Edition doesn't support and you need to use the Professional or above edition.
This article tells how to easily migrate Windows 10 to SSD/new hard drive or clone Windows 10 to SSD without reinstalling the operating system.
Step 1: Go to MiniTool Partition Wizard's main interface. Then click Copy Disk in the left action panel after selecting the target hard drive.
Step 2: Select a destination disk to store the source contents.
Note:
1. Here this disk should be big enough so as to hold all data on the source disk.
2. Moreover, please pay attention to that the cloning process can overwrite the data on the target disk.
1. Here this disk should be big enough so as to hold all data on the source disk.
2. Moreover, please pay attention to that the cloning process can overwrite the data on the target disk.
Step 3: Choose one copy option based on your actual need.
Step 4: Then some information about how to boot from the target disk will be shown here. Just do it in the event of system corruption.
Step 5: Press Apply to perform all the changes.
Windows Hard Drive Encryption
Verdict
Now, you must know much information about how to ghost hard drive Windows 10/8/7. In this post, we tell you two backup strategies – image and clone.
By means of MiniTool ShadowMaker, it is quite easy to ghost the disk by creating an image or cloning a hard drive to SSD/HD. In addition, you can also adopt another piece of ghost drive software – MiniTool Partition Wizard to clone your disk for backup.
Hard Drives Preloaded With Windows
Suppose that you have some questions whiling using our our computer ghosting software, remember to tell us by leaving one comment in the following zone or writing an email to our support team via [email protected]. Also, the suggestions are appreciated here.