Erase an HFS+ GPT drive in Windows 7 #

The Windows 7 Disk Management GUI does not offer a way to partition or format an HFS+ GPT drive. Use DiskPart to remove all volume formatting:

C:\>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: computername

DISKPART> list disk

 Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
 --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
 Disk 0    Online          119 GB      0 B
 Disk 1    Online           59 GB    59 GB        *

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> exit

This post originally used the term "wipe". Claus kindly wrote in to remind readers that this process (which only takes a few seconds) is nothing like securely erasing a drive, but that "clean all" can be used to zero out the disk.

/windows | Sep 30, 2012

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