This article will walk through the steps of using the Microsoft Diskpart erase utility to Clean the disk of a previous partition and format, including any data on the drive. This command takes only a few minutes to complete.

This article covers Diskpart Erasing of a 3TB or larger drive that has a Master Boot Record (MBR) Partition table, which is thereby limiting its capacity to 2TB. However, this article also applies to any scenario where a Diskpart Erase of an entire disk is necessary.

To determine the disk number assigned to the 3TB+ MBR partitioned drive follow the steps below.

Procedure

From the Start menu right click on Computer which will provide a drop down menu. (If you are on Windows 8 or 8.1 move your mouse to the bottom left hand corner of the desktop screen and right click. Then select Disk Management). Choose Manage.

Select Disk Management (listed under Storage).

Look for the drive that is identified as the 3TB drive (2794GB). The properties window shows that the partition table on the drive is MBR.

Important: note the Disk number (such as Disk 1).

Open a Command Prompt window. To open the Command Prompt on a Windows Vista or Windows 7/8/8.1/10 machine click on Start and type cmd in the search bar. Then right click on cmd.exe and run as administrator. It will prompt you with the message, "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer", click yes. A black Command Prompt window will open.

On Windows 8/8.1/10 move your mouse to the bottom left hand corner of the desktop screen and right click. Select Command Prompt (Admin) from the pop-up menu.

This is the Command Prompt window:

From the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.

The diskpart prompt will open:

From the diskpart prompt, type list disk and press Enter.

A list of disks will appear in a text format. You will return to the diskpart prompt. Step one verified that Disk 1 is the 3TB drive.

Warning: Diskpart Erase/Clean will permanently erase/destroy all data on the selected drive. Please be certain that you are erasing the correct disk.

From the diskpart prompt you will need to select a disk disk number (for instance, if the 3TB+ drive is Disk 1, you would type select disk 1) and press Enter.

Warning: Diskpart Erase/Clean will permanently erase/destroy all data on the selected drive. Please be certain that you are erasing the correct disk.

A message appears saying that the disk is selected. You will return to the diskpart prompt.

Warning: Diskpart Erase/Clean will permanently erase/destroy all data on the selected drive. Please be certain that you are erasing the correct disk.

From the diskpart prompt, type clean and press Enter. The drive's partition, data, and signature is now removed. You will return to the diskpart prompt.

Warning: Once you type clean and hit enter the drive will be erased. No warning will be provided.

The Command Prompt window will display the message "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk". Close out of the Command Prompt window by clicking the red X in the upper right hand corner.

Now the 3TB+ drive of this example can be re-initialized, partitioned, and formatted.