Changed from hard drive to SSD for Windows and some apps, how do I clean the old hard drive to be able to use it again?

[__BOSSY__]

I changed motherboard cpu and Ram and bought a new SSD. I already installed and activated windows 10 on the SSD and downloaded some games and apps! My question is, how can i use my hard drive again? do i just plug it in SATA cable and no issues? How do I clean the hard drive?

 

[USAFRet]

H0opefully, you installed the OS on the SSD, with only the SSD connected?
If so, diskpart at the commandline.
The clean command is what you're looking for.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3076355/clean-clean-diskpart.html
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/005929en
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc766465(v=ws.10)


Be absolutely sure which drive you are accessing when you do this.

 

[__BOSSY__]

So I plug the hard drive in and turn the Pc on and open command prompt and tell it to clean the hard drive?! That simple?

 

[USAFRet]

So I plug the hard drive in and turn the Pc on and open command prompt and tell it to clean the hard drive?! That simple?

Mostly, yes.

Study the diskpart commands. Powerful, and dangerous if you do it wrong.

 

[RolandJS]

I hope you named the SSD and that other hard-drive unique names! If you diskpart the wrong device, you will lose your OS -- unless you have made routine full images of your OS and Data partitions on external media.