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lolapolooza

Member

Registered: 2021-01-11

Posts: 66

How to format my encrypted HDD?

A long time ago I encrypted my hard drive but I have forgotten my encryption password.

How can I format my encrypted HDD?

Thanks@@

HanBaoCinch

Member

Registered: 2021-01-11

Posts: 93

Re: How to format my encrypted HDD?

Really depends on the encryption software used to encrypt it.
If we are talking about Microsoft's bitlocker, you can delete and create a new parition via the disk part command and then recreate a new partition in Windows Disk management.

Drassen

Member

Registered: 2021-01-11

Posts: 71

Re: How to format my encrypted HDD?

Really depends on the encryption software used to encrypt it.
If we are talking about Microsoft's bitlocker, you can delete and create a new parition via the disk part command and then recreate a new partition in Windows Disk management.

This is the typical approach for this specific issue; lost password.

Ollester

Member

Registered: 2021-01-11

Posts: 64

Re: How to format my encrypted HDD?

I can only speak out of experience regarding Bitlocker, but you don't even need to use disk part if you're reinstalling the OS. During the drive/partition management step of the OS install you can easily format a bitlocked drive. If it's just a storage drive, hkhan's suggestion will do the trick.

CThinker

Member

Registered: 2021-03-22

Posts: 4

Re: How to format my encrypted HDD?

I work with McAfee encrypted drives, the only way I found to delete is:

* From a WinPE enviorement, run CMD and type:

diskpart
list disk    (lists the disks)
select disk 0    (0 being the disk to setup)
clean    (wipes the disk)
create partition primary (creates windows partition)
select partition 1
format quick fs=NTFS (Format primary partition)
assign letter C
exit

or

* Boot the Pc with the encrypted disk from a Windows 10 installer USB, when prompted to select the target disk, delete all partitions from the encrypted drive and create a new one.

or

* Boot the pc with the encrypted disk from a Live USB Linux distro, use Gparted, delete al partitions and create a new one.

If you're working with McAfee encryption over a Kingston SSD, try upgrading the SSD firmware, you may "magically" decrypt it