Question Possible to wipe/format/reset OS drive WITHOUT installing windows afterwards

[Hardminder]

Hey guys. Long story short, I have a M.2 drive with windows installed on it and not much else. It is my OS drive. I would like to completely empty it. I can go in recovery mode to reset the computer but it will always include reinstalling windows. I don't have another drive to install windows on to then format the M.2 from. All I have is this M.2 drive with windows on it and a bootable flash drive.

Can you guys thing of something to help me achieve this? I just want to completely wipe the OS drive and not have windows reinstalled on it. Don't second guess it, there's a reason behind this.

Thank you!

 

[DaleH]

Hey guys. Long story short, I have a M.2 drive with windows installed on it and not much else. I would like to completely empty it. I can go in recovery mode to reset the computer but it will always include reinstalling windows. I don't have another drive to install windows on to then format the M.2 from. All I have is this M.2 drive with windows on it and a bootable flash drive.

Can you guys thing of something to help me achieve this? I just want to completely wipe the OS drive and not have windows reinstalled on it. Don't second guess it, there's a reason behind this.

Thank you!

Can't you format it?

 

[USAFRet]

Hey guys. Long story short, I have a M.2 drive with windows installed on it and not much else. I would like to completely empty it. I can go in recovery mode to reset the computer but it will always include reinstalling windows. I don't have another drive to install windows on to then format the M.2 from. All I have is this M.2 drive with windows on it and a bootable flash drive.

Can you guys thing of something to help me achieve this? I just want to completely wipe the OS drive and not have windows reinstalled on it. Don't second guess it, there's a reason behind this.

Thank you!

Well....that "reason" is maybe significant.

But, if you remove everything from that drive, there is no more "Windows".
No OS, nothing to boot from.

You can. if you want, reformat that drive completely, in the process of a full fresh OS installation.

But reading through that whole post, twice....what you want to achieve is still unclear.

 

[Hardminder]

Can't you format it?

Well, that is my question basically. I can't format it the easy way no, it is my OS drive. OS won't allow me to format itself.

 

[USAFRet]

Well, that is my question basically. I can't format it the easy way no, it is my OS drive. OS won't allow me to format itself.

Let us know what you want the end state to be, and we can probably lead you down the path to that.

 

[Hardminder]

Well....that "reason" is maybe significant.

But, if you remove everything from that drive, there is no more "Windows".
No OS, nothing to boot from.

You can. if you want, reformat that drive completely, in the process of a full fresh OS installation.

But reading through that whole post, twice....what you want to achieve is still unclear.

Yes, I know that there is mo more windows, that it precisely what I want to achieve. I didn't mention. The reason because I know people are going to focus on that and not answer the actual answer. The rest of the process I can manage. I just want to wipe that drive, wipe everything, windows included. THAT is what I want to achieve.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, I know that there is mo more windows, that it precisely what I want to achieve. I didn't mention. The reason because I know people are going to focus on that and not answer the actual answer. The rest of the process I can manage. I just want to wipe that drive, wipe everything, windows included. THAT is what I want to achieve.

Then you simply need something else to boot from.

A Windows install USB will give you enough functionality to completely format a drive.
Or a Linux LiveUSB.



But again, what are you trying to actually achieve?

 

[Hardminder]

Let us know what you want the end state to be, and we can probably lead you down the path to that.

A totally empty drive, that's the end state I want. I need this drive to be empty, period. That's all that needed to be known but I'll tell the whole story. An expert restored 100% of my data on a physicaly corrupted drive and he'd be able to clone it to a new drive. Initially he told me he couldn't so I bought a new drive and installed windows on it, but now he told me he can so I have to bring an empty drive to his shop. He's already doing me a favor by doing the clone and he's not offering the formatting option so I have to do it before hand.

I just need to know how to wipe that disk, really.

 

[USAFRet]

A totally empty drive, that's the end state I want. I need this drive to be empty, period. That's all that needed to be known but I'll tell the whole story. An expert restored 100% of my data on a physicaly corrupted drive and he'd be able to clone it to a new drive. Initially he told me he couldn't so I bought a new drive and installed windows on it, but now he told me he can so I have to bring an empty drive to his shop. He's already doing me a favor by doing the clone and he's not offering the formatting option so I have to do it before hand.

I just need to know how to wipe that disk, really.

Then simply some other drive (or system) to boot from.

Put it in another system, or boot from a Windows install USB, or Linux.

 

[Hardminder]

Then you simply need something else to boot from.

A Windows install USB will give you enough functionality to completely format a drive.
Or a Linux LiveUSB.



But again, what are you trying to actually achieve?

I have a installation flash drive to boot from but it only works to install windows right. Or is there's a way to wipe a drive from there.

Honestly, there really isn't anything other than wiping it I want to achieve. I've been working on that for 2 weeks and I was trying to save some time and avoid having to tell the whole story that honestly provides nothing more.But if you want to know, I told the whole thing to another user just above.

Thank you

 

[USAFRet]

I have a installation flash drive to boot from but it only works to install windows right. Or is there's a way to wipe a drive from there.

Honestly, there really isn't anything other than wiping it I want to achieve. I've been working on that for 2 weeks and I was trying to save some time and avoid having to tell the whole story that honestly provides nothing more.But if you want to know, I told the whole thing to another user just above.

Thank you

A flash drive to install Windows with will absolutely have the functionality to wipe that drive.

Booted on that, you can open a commandline box and delete ALL partitions on it, and format.

But...what system is this drive in?
If that system has its own OS, you can do it directly from that OS.

 

[Hardminder]

Then simply some other drive (or system) to boot from.

Put it in another system, or boot from a Windows install USB, or Linux.

Then simply some other drive (or system) to boot from.

Put it in another system, or boot from a Windows install USB, or Linux.

As I said, I don't have another drive to install windows on. I don't have another system that supports nvme m.2. I do have a windows installed usb flash drive. I could wipe my drive from the installation flash drive? What would be the process? The only option I get when booting from the installation flash drive is to install windows.

Thank you

 

[USAFRet]

As I said, I don't have another drive to install windows on. I don't have another system that supports nvme m.2. I do have a windows installed usb flash drive. I could wipe my drive from the installation flash drive? What would be the process? The only option I get when booting from the installation flash drive is to install windows.

Thank you

The easy way....

Boot from that flash drive, start the Windows install process.
When it asks where, you'll see that NVMe drive.
Just DELETE all existing partitions on that drive.
Done.


What will be done with this drive and system after wiping it?

 

[Hardminder]

A flash drive to install Windows with will absolutely have the functionality to wipe that drive.

Booted on that, you can open a commandline box and delete ALL partitions on it, and format.

But...what system is this drive in?
If that system has its own OS, you can do it directly from that OS.

Yes, that system has its own OS, but the OS is on the said drive that I want to wipe... That's the whole issue. If it was a second or third drive I wouldn't even be here.

So where, from the installation drive, would I find that commandline box to delete all partitions. Because all I can seem to land on after startup is the windows intallation window. Do you have a precise procedure.

Thanks a lot.

 

[USAFRet]

So, an OS lives on this NVMe drive.
If you wipe it...then what? What will become of this drive and system?

 

[Hardminder]

So, an OS lives on this NVMe drive.
If you wipe it...then what? What will become of this drive and system?

Sorry, I was on my phone and I thought I was talking to 2 different person. So we both repeated the same thing twice basically.

What will happen of the drive? I will bring it to the guy I told you about and he will clone my old system on it, period. As I said, I just can't bring him the drive with windows still on it. That's all there is to it.

 

[USAFRet]

Sorry, I was on my phone and I thought I was talking to 2 different person. So we both repeated the same thing twice basically.

What will happen of the drive? I will bring it to the guy I told you about and he will clone my old system on it, period. As I said, I just can't bring him the drive with windows still on it. That's all there is to it.

Well, yeah, you can.
The clone operation will also wipe it.


But as said above, Boot from the Windows install thing you have, start the process.
When it asks where, simply DELETE all existing partitions on that drive.
Stop.
Done....blank drive.

 

[Hardminder]

Well, yeah, you can.
The clone operation will also wipe it.


But as said above, Boot from the Windows install thing you have, start the process.
When it asks where, simply DELETE all existing partitions on that drive.
Done....blank drive.

Yes, it's done, thanks. I don't know about the clone operation. The guy told me an empty drive, that's what I'm trying to provide.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, it's done, thanks. I don't know about the clone operation. The guy told me an empty drive, that's what I'm trying to provide.

Sounds like your clone guy might be a bit clueless.

What is on the target drive make NO difference. It will be gone gone gone during the cloning process.
Even a previous OS.

But, good luck.

 

[Hardminder]

Sounds like your clone guy might be a bit clueless.

What is on the target drive make NO difference. It will be gone gone gone during the cloning process.
Even a previous OS.

But, good luck.

He's not clueless, he's a freaking genius. He's a data recovery guy, works in a lab, not an IT guy. He doesn't usually offer cloning service. He recovered 100% of a completely messed nvme m.2, know to be extremely hard to recover. He's not clueless at all, he's just Russian and he doesn't speak french, my first language, and his English is rudimentary at best. So if he says "empty disk", I bring a empty freaking disk, that's all.

 

[USAFRet]

Ya know...DIY cloning is pretty easy, and $0.

 

[USAFRet]

But if you're thinking of using the "files" mentioned in your other thread as a 'source' for the OS....

Question - Is it possible to use a recovered disk as my OS local disk again ?

Hi everyone, Pretty simple question here, Lately, my OS drive died on me. I brought it to an expert an e was able to recover 100% of its content. I bought a new drive and reinstalled Windows 11. The question is: is there a way to use the data from the recovered disk as my working OS drive...

forums.tomshardware.com

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

 

[Hardminder]

Ya know...DIY cloning is pretty easy, and $0.

Yeah, I know cloning is easy, I've done it before. You really REALLY have to know everything there is to know about my little story huh? Can't be happy with simply answering my simple question and accept the thanks. You have to know why I want to do this and that when I took the time to say "don't second guess it" in my original post. I wanted to wipe my OS drive and that's it. And you had the answer readily available. You could have just provided it. But I had to share why, which was completely useless. You couldn't just trust that it was all I needed. Why? And then when it explained you asked and asked again to make sure you could tell me about my "clone guy" being clueless. About the clone process being simple. Why?

I don't give a rat's <Mod Edit> about that, dude. Why do i need to explain my whole story. You want to ear it? Both my nvme and backup drive shorted at the same time due to a flooding in my basement. I lost all the music I've been working on for the last 4 years. At the same time, my car broke down and it took 3 weeks to repair it, dealing with an incompetent mechanist. At the same time, I got a job in Northern Canada, 4 hours flight, 8 hours of train, in the middle of nowhere. I'm leaving tomorrow. So yeah, I was trying to ask a quick question to bypass all the BS. The dude asked for an empty drive and I won't second guess it, I don't care if he doesn't actually needs one, that's the last of my concern. And he's not charging me for it. So considering my situation, he can deal with it.

That's why i started the question with "to make a long story short" and finished with "don't second guess it, there's a reason behind it". But that went right over you head.

And no, I'm not copying the files I talked about in my other post. You want me to tell you all about that too.

Thank, anyways.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't give a tiny rats ass about the backstory.

But knowing the why, often leads to how to achieve what you're actually looking for.

We get all sorts of inquiries of how to wipe a drive.
But with the end result wanting to be a clone target, or a fresh OS install, or selling it, or how to dispose of a probably broken drive.

In each case, the 'how' is different.

All the way from a simple 'format', to smashing it with a hammer.
Or doing nothing at all, because the next procedure will wipe it anyway.

But it seems like you're on your way...so good luck.

 

[Hardminder]

I don't give a tiny rats ass about the backstory.

But knowing the why, often leads to how to achieve what you're actually looking for.

We get all sorts of inquiries of how to wipe a drive.
But with the end result wanting to be a clone target, or a fresh OS install, or selling it, or how to dispose of a probably broken drive.

In each case, the 'how' is different.

All the way from a simple 'format', to smashing it with a hammer.
Or doing nothing at all, because the next procedure will wipe it anyway.

But it seems like you're on your way...so good luck

Yeah, I get all that. That sometimes you need the the why. I'm one of the "high ranking" useras in some forums and groups about other subjects, I wasn't born yesterday. But when someone starts with "to make a long story short" and ends with "don't second guess it" and throughout the exchanges tells you "I can manage the rest", "I didn't mention the rest because I don't want people to focus on that", maybe you could understand that the person is really just trying to get an answer to the simple question he/she asked. As it was my case. I asked how to wipe it and the answer was very easy.

And even after providing it and when i confirmed several times that it was all I needed, you kept asking "but why" and then told me that the guy was clueless, that I could do it on my own. Confirming that you were not just looking to give the best answer to my actual question, but rather eager to just provide unsolicited, impertinent, smug "advice".

If someone Is clearly just requesting a simple answer to a simple question and is clearly stating that he wants nothing more, and you happen to have that answer, maybe just provide it. Of you want to talk about everything you know, I'm sure some people will be interested, it's just not always the case. Read the crowd, understand your interlocutor.