Proper way to wipe an hdd and an ssd for re-use in a new machine?

[kenneth.mathis.simpson]

Hi guys! I'm just about to have all the pieces together for my first tower build and had a quick question about my storage drives. In order to keep my build within the confines of my small budget, I decided I'd try and reuse the PNY CS1311 SSD 240GB from a laptop I hardly use anymore, and a 1TB WD Purple HDD (at second glance it appears to be a surveillance HDD) from an XPS all in one built in the Vista days that also hasn't seen much use. The SSD will be used as my boot media and storage for the more read/write hungry applications, and the HDD will be used as storage for photos, documents, things I don't use all the time but would like to have accessible without clogging my SSD. I cloned the SSD to another laptop Toshiba HDD from a laptop with a busted screen, so that laptop is still usable. However, I'd like the set up of the new equipment in my tower to be as seamless as possible, as I have a knack for making systems crash by simply breathing on the wrong part. So, my question is this: how do I properly go about wiping a used SSD and HDD so that they may be reused as described above? I've listes the specs for my build below if it makes any difference.
Thanks!
~Ken

CPU: i7-2600
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT Liquid Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G43
RAM: 1 Stick 8GB 1600Mhz Corsair XMS3
GPU: Zotac 970 GTX 90101-10P
Case: ThermalTake View 27 Snow Edition - only link I could find was for the regular View 27, but the only difference between the two is the color scheme
Power Supply: EVGA GQ 650W Semi-Modular Gold 80+
SSD: PNY CS1311 240GB
HDD: Western Digital 1TB Surveillance Drive
I have an old WDA-1320 Wireless adapter from D-Link I'm curious to try for very basic internet connection as running ethernet to the tower location is not an option, though I'm not certain it'll work as it's a cheapo adapter I bought a few years back and is likely ancient by computer standards. However, the location the tower is initially setup in will have ethernet as an option for connection so downloading and installing drivers won't be difficult - the card will be something to mess with afterwards.

 

[jsmithepa]

TL;DR

Remove all partitions will render it LIKE NEW. Create a new partition if u have to. Windows fresh install will automatically asks to do this.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Use diskpart clean to wipe your drives.
You can run it during windows install, when booted from windows install media and then after going into command prompt.
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/005929en

Have only one drive (SSD) connected during windows install. Or bootloader may end up on HDD instead and you always will need both drives present to boot your system.

 

[BadAsAl]

I know the other responders covered this but thought I could summarize:

1. Only have 1 hard drive in when you boot to the installer (I am assuming the SSD)
2. When you get to the point where it shows your partitions, select each one and delete them until you have one entry with Unallocated space
3. Click next and let Windows install (it will create the partitions is needs)
4. After you are up and running, shut down and install the HDD.

Now follow the link that SkyNetRising provided to run the command prompt and erase the HDD and format it as storage: http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/005929en

 

[masterchiefkenny]

Thanks for the help guys! Another question for ya, can I use that same method to wipe the SSD too or is it better to just delete the partitions?

 

[SkyNetRising]

It is better to use diskpart clean. Deleting partitions might not be enough sometimes (if change of partitioning style is necessary).
And yes - you can use the same procedure for HDDs and SSDs also.

 

[kenneth.mathis.simpson]

Thanks a bunch y'all! The build is together and running pretty smoothly now, bootup (from off to windows desktop) cold and hot is anywhere between 3-5 seconds which is amazing compared to the computers I've had in the past. The magic of SSD booting on a system that can actually use the speeds