How to reuse a SATA HDD or SSD

So you upgraded the drive in your computer and now have an extra SATA drive that you do not know what to do with. There are a couple of things you can do with it. So here is what you can do with your old SATA drive.

I have written several articles on how to clone the drive in your Windows-based computer. But I have never written an article on what to do with the drive that you replaced.

Regarding the old SATA drive, there are two options: reuse or recycle it. Either way, you will need some additional hardware to utilize the old drive.

To reuse it inside of your computer, you will need a spare drive carriage, mounting screws, a 7-pin SATA data cable, and a spare 15-pin SATA power connection. If you want to connect it externally, you need a drive enclosure (2.5" or 3.5").

To recycle it, you will need to erase all of the data on the drive. I like to encrypt the drive with BitLocker first, then perform a seven-pass DoD (Department of Defense) disk wipe. So even if someone were able to recover any data, it would still be encrypted.

Now, was the old drive bootable (contained the operating system)? If so, then there will be a boot record that needs to be deleted before you can reuse it.

If you plan on reusing the drive, simply erasing all of the data on the drive should work. If you plan on recycling it, you will need to securely erase all of the data so no one can successfully recover anything from it.

If the drive was used only for storage, then erasing all of the data will work. If it was the boot drive in your computer, we have to erase all of the data and delete the boot record so that any computer that it is connected to does not accidentally boot up onto it.

Time to erase the drive

The first thing you have to do is attach the drive to your computer, either by turning the computer off and installing the drive inside of your computer. Or by connecting it externally using a drive case, docking station, or a USB adapter.

Remember that if the drive was originally a boot drive and you installed it inside of your computer, your system may try to boot on that drive. It is recommended that you wipe the drive of any boot record and boot partition before installing it inside your computer.

Several drive manufacturers have software that can erase the data from one of their drives. Western Digital, Seagate, and Samsung are a few that have that type of software. In fact, Seagate's Seatools for Windows will work on any manufacturer's drive.

There is also third-party software that can perform DoD (Department of Defense) disk erasing. The UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) has several programs that can perform a DoD disk wipe (I like using Darik's Boot and Nuke). If you are planning on recycling the drive, a DoD wipe is recommended.

There have been times when I have seen a manufacturer's software fail when it comes to erasing data from a drive. It usually happens when the drive in question was originally a boot drive.

As you can see from the following screen capture,

the original boot/recovery partition can not be deleted in Disk Management application.

In cases like that, using the Diskpart application works great. It is a command-line program, but you can use it to delete any partition if you are very careful.

Using Diskpart to erase a drive

Note: Misusing Diskpart can erase a disk that you may not want to be wiped, so be extra careful and double-check the disk number before proceeding.

To ensure that you erase the correct drive, let's open Windows Disk Management and verify the disk number.

1. Open Disk Management by right-clicking on the Start button and selecting Disk Management from the Power User menu.
2. Locate the disk in question.
   
   It will be labeled Disk #. Please make a note of the disk number, as it will be required for the next step.

To erase your SATA drive, you will need to run command-line syntax(s) and parameter(s) in an administrative Command Prompt or PowerShell. In Windows 11, you can access both of these through the Terminal app.

Open Terminal with Administrator privileges in Windows

1. Right-click on the Start button to bring up the Power User menu.
2. Left-click on Terminal (Admin). If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Open a Command Prompt or PowerShell with Administrator privileges in Windows

1. Left-click on the magnifying glass to the right of the Start button or use the Windows logo key + S to bring up the Search dialog box.
2. In the Search dialog box, type Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell.
3. The Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell should be highlighted in the results list.
4. An options menu is in the right-hand column under Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell. Left-click on Run as administrator. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Now that you have an Administrative Command Prompt, PowerShell, or Terminal open.

1. Type diskpart and then press enter.
2. Type list disk and press enter.
   
3. Type select disk #, replacing the # with the disk number found in Disk Management.
   
4. Type clean and press enter.
   
   
5. Type exit to close Disk Management.
6. Type exit again to close the Command Prompt.

Time to format the drive

All partitions will now be gone, and the drive is ready to be reformatted. Let's go back into Disk Management and reformat the drive. When you open Disk Management, you should be prompted to initialize the disk.

If the drive is smaller than 2 Terabytes, use the MBR (Master Boot Record) partition style. Any drive larger than 2 Terabytes must use the GPT (GUID Partition Table) partition style.

Once you initialize the disk, right-click on the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.

You will be prompted for the volume size, assigning a drive letter or path, and specifying the format you want the partition in. Using the selected defaults is recommended.