A clean installation of Windows does automatically wipe all drives ; by default, it only affects the specific drive or partition you select for the installation. However, secondary drives can still be impacted by manual formatting during setup or system misconfigurations. How a Clean Install Interacts with Multiple Drives

An hour later, Leo was back at his desktop. The wallpaper was the default blue ribbon. The icons were gone. He held his breath and opened File Explorer.

Sometimes, users realize their files were only on the desktop (C: drive), which is wiped. Even if the secondary drives are safe, your primary user profile data is gone. How to Ensure "Exclusive" Wiping