Back up any files you want to keep
Sign out of accounts and deactivate software licenses if needed
Create a bootable drive or use built-in recovery tools if you plan to reinstall the operating system
Open the disk management or recovery utility for your operating system
Select the hard drive or partition you want to erase
Choose the erase, format, or reset option
For a full wipe, use a secure erase, clean all, or overwrite option if available
Confirm the action and wait for the process to finish
Reinstall the operating system if you want to use the drive again
Verify the drive is empty and no data remains accessible