Erase external hard drive windows 7

If it does require phone Activation, do not follow the Auto Prompts , but hold on for a real person to explain to as to what has been done for re-installation purposes. I have the same question Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. LemP Volunteer Moderator. How satisfied are you with this reply? For better security, you need to reformat Seagate external hard drive in full mode, which overwrites zeros and ones over the data, i.

This will undoubtedly make the data more difficult to recover but not impossible. Note: To avoid unwanted data loss, please backup external hard drive before formatting.

It resets the drive to factory settings and change the encryption key to permanently erase the data remaining on Seagate hard drive. However, it only works on Windows 8 or earlier OS, and the operation is kind of complicated.

Also, it erases the hard drive faster than the Windows built-in formatting. Download the Standard edition to have a try. You can upgrade to enjoy all wiping methods anytime you like.

Wipe Seagate external hard drive securely with specialist software:. Click Add Data to select the files to wipe and choose an erasure method. I usually go with the DoD three-pass option. An Eraser option also appears when you right-click on a file in Windows Explorer, allowing you to permanently delete files quickly and easily. Eraser has a ton of advanced scheduling and file options if you want to securely wipe specific files or sectors of your hard drive on a regular basis.

Did you think using Erase was simple? Again, we suggest at least three. Be sure to select your operating system when downloading the utility; Windows 10 users can choose the Windows 8 option.

A note on whole-disk wiping software: Wiping entire drives requires slightly more complicated solutions than the easy-to-use apps mentioned previously. The external hard drive is write-protected, thus you can remove write protection from it before deleting inside files. There are file system errors on the external hard drive. In this tutorial, we have shown how to delete files from external hard drive permanently through 5 different methods. Now, you can choose a proper method according to your personal requirements.

Need to delete files from external hard drive How to delete files from external hard drive successfully? Method 1. Delete files one by one in File Explorer Recoverable Method 2. Delete files from external hard drive using CMD Method 3. Deleting files permanently by wiping the external hard drive Unrecoverable What to do if you cannot delete files from external hard drive?

Final words Need to delete files from external hard drive An external hard drive is mostly used to hold documents, images, music, videos and other personal files. How to delete files from external hard drive successfully? Method 2.