How to Erase a BitLocker-Encrypted Drive Safely

BitLocker is a Windows built-in full-disk encryption feature used to encrypt both internal hard drives and external storage devices, including USB flash drives and portable hard disks.

It can prevent unauthorized users from accessing files in the encrypted drive without the correct password, PIN, recovery key, or other approved authentication method.

You may need to wipe a BitLocker-encrypted drive in some cases. For example:

• Sell, donate, or recycle your computer or storage device.
• Forgot the BitLocker password or recovery key.
• Fix a corrupted or unreadable BitLocker drive.
• And so on.

Things to Do Before Wiping a BitLocker Drive

To ensure the BitLocker drive wiping proceeds smoothly and without accidental data loss, you need to be aware of the following points before starting the process.

#1. Back Up Important Files

Drive wiping will permanently erase all stored information by overwriting the entire drive with random strings or zeros. As a result, data recovery is usually impossible.

Therefore, if there is important data on the BitLocker drive, please back it up to a safe location first, such as another disk or cloud storage.

#2. Make Sure the Drive Is Not Write-Protected

If the BitLocker-encrypted drive is read-only, the wiping may fail. To check if the disk is read-only, open DiskPart from Windows Search. Then, run the following commands:

• List disk
• Select disk * (* is the disk number of the BitLocker disk)
• Attributes disk

If the Read-only is Yes, the disk is write-protected. To remove write protection, run Attributes disk clear readonly.

#3. Make Sure the Drive Is Not in Use

The wiping operation may also fail when the BitLocker drive is in use. You need to close any programs currently using the drive. If it still shows as in use after doing so, try restarting your computer.

If you need to wipe the BitLocker-encrypted C drive or the system disk, you must prepare a bootable USB drive. Then, use the bootable USB drive to wipe the original C drive or system drive.

How to Wipe a BitLocker Encrypted Drive

Can you wipe a BitLocker drive? The answer is Yes. You can try the following 3 methods to do that.

Method 1. Use MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is an all-in-one disk and partition management tool. It allows you to manage BitLocker drives with features such as formatting, deleting, moving/resizing, extending, copying, and wiping.

Here is how to wipe a BitLocker drive using this software.  

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Tip: If you want to use this software to wipe the BitLocker-encrypted C drive or system disk, you need to use it to create a bootable USB drive, start a PC from the USB drive, and then wipe the BitLocker drive in MiniTool Partition Wizard.

#1. Wipe a BitLocker-encrypted partition in an internal hard drive

1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
2. Select the BitLocker-encrypted partition on the internal drive.
3. Click Wipe Partition in the action panel.
4. Select a wiping method and click OK.
5. Click Apply to execute the wiping operation.

#2. Wipe an entire disk

1. In MiniTool Partition Wizard, select the BitLocker-encrypted USB drive or external drive (the entire disk).
2. Click Wipe Disk.
3. Select a wiping method and click OK.
4. Click Apply.

Method 2. Perform Full Format

Unlike quick format, full format will write zeros over every sector to destroy old data. Therefore, it can also wipe the BitLocker drive.

File Explorer, Disk Management, and DiskPart can perform a full format. Here are the guides.

#1. File Explorer

1. Press Win + E to open File Explorer.
2. Under This PC, right-click the BitLocker drive and choose Format.
3. Untick the Quick Format option.
4. Click Start and OK.

#2. Disk Management

1. Open Disk Management from Windows Search.
2. Right-click the BitLocker-Encrypted drive and choose Format.
3. Untick the Perform a quick format option.
4. Click OK and then OK again.

#3. DiskPart

Open DiskPart from Windows Search. Then, run the following commands one by one.

• list disk
• select disk * (* is the number of the disk where the BitLocker-encrypted partition is located)
• list partition
• select partition # (# is the partition number of the BitLocker-encrypted partition)
• format fs=ntfs (you can also replace ntfs with fat32 or exfat)

Method 3. Use DiskPart Clean All

The DiskPart clean all command will completely erase a disk by overwriting all sectors with zeros, rendering previous data unrecoverable.

You can open DiskPart from Windows Search. Then, run the following commands to wipe a BitLocker disk.

• List disk
• Select disk * (* is the disk number of the BitLocker disk)
• Clean all

DiskPart can run in WinPE. Therefore, you can also use it to wipe the BitLocker-encrypted C drive and system disk. To do that, you need to:

1. Create a Windows installation USB drive.
2. Boot the PC from the USB drive.
3. Once the Windows Setup wizard opens, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt.
4. Type “diskpart” and press Enter to call DiskPart. Then, run these commands to wipe the BitLocker drive.

This post is a step-by-step guide on BitLocker-encrypted drive wiping. It can ensure the wiping proceeds smoothly and help avoid accidental loss of important data by preparing beforehand.Click to Tweet

Wipe BitLocker Drive FAQ

Bottom Line

This post offers 3 methods to wipe a BitLocker drive. To ensure the wiping proceeds smoothly, it also explains the preparatory work before the wiping. Among these methods, MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended for its flexibility and powerful features.

If you encounter issues when using this software, contact our support team via [email protected] for help.