Does - Reinstalling Windows Wipe All Drives

There are, however, methods to achieve a total wipe during a reinstallation, but they require deliberate intent. The "Reset this PC" feature found in Windows 10 and 11 offers an option specifically designed for this scenario. When a user chooses the "Remove everything" option, Windows effectively wipes the system drive. However, unless the user navigates to advanced settings, this feature still defaults to wiping only the drive where Windows is installed. To truly wipe all drives, the user must utilize the "Clean" command via the Diskpart utility during the custom installation phase, or use third-party data sanitization tools. Only by deleting every partition on every drive and allowing Windows to create new ones can a user be certain that the previous data is rendered inaccessible (though even then, forensic recovery is theoretically possible without specialized overwriting tools).

Reinstalling Windows does not automatically wipe all drives. By default, the installation process only affects the specific drive or partition you select as the destination for the operating system. does reinstalling windows wipe all drives

If you use the built-in reset feature (Settings > Recovery), you are typically presented with choices that determine what stays and what goes: There are, however, methods to achieve a total