Clearing personal files

[Flyingraptor]

Hi!

I recently bought a new laptop, and I am able to sell my old laptop to a friend.
I am busy now with moving all my files and programs to my new pc. After that I would like to remove all the more "hidden" files (register, etc...) that might me still on the HDD of my old laptop.
I know the most thorough way would be to format the HDD and re-install Windows and all the necessary drivers.

But is there another way? Is it possible to set the old computer back to factory standards, so that all personal files are gone?
Or is it possible to use a program to delete my personal files that might still be on the HDD after I moved all my stuff to my new pc?

Regards,
Jurgen

 

[johnb35]

If you are selling your laptop to a friend you should always format and reinstall after getting all your data off of it that you need. That way he starts fresh and doesn't take over any issues you may have had.

 

[Apoc]

Some pc's and laptops come with Recovery dvd's, it should re-install the OS. That would be the best way. Just click the full recover option, not the partition.
Or get a new hard drive and do the full recovery with same dvd. There really is no easy way.

 

[Flyingraptor]

Thanks for the answers.

A recovery dvd for the OS was included with my pc. Can I just reinstall the OS without the need to reinstall all necessary drivers?
And if not, what's the best way to find out what drivers I need to install?

Can I just remove my files, start up the recovery dvd for the OS (using the full recovery option), and get a clean install of Windows, without the need to really delete everything via format and so have to reinstall the drivers?

 

[johnb35]

The recovery cd will install all necessary drivers for the hardware that came with the system. If any hardware was added after you bought it then you would have to reinstall those drivers unless windows already had them built in.

 

[Flyingraptor]

Well, a year ago or so, the original HDD of my old laptop crashed, so I had to buy and install a new one. So I had to install Windows on the new HDD and then I could use Windows' Complete PC-Restore (on Windows Vista Business) to get all my files, settings, ect back (in fact, really getting my old pc back, from before the HDD crashed).

So actually it does have a new piece of hardware, that it didn't had when it left the Dell factory: the new HDD. Does this cause a problem if I want to get a clean install? Because I don't have a driver for this on a dvd...

The old pc had a recovery dvd for the OS and a recovery dvd for the drivers. Can I just reinstall Windows without the need to reinstall the drivers? Because that was such a mess the last time... I really had to do that manually, the drivers didn't install automatically...

 

[johnb35]

The new hard drive won't make a difference. If you have any issues installing the drivers then come back here and I'll help you out. Finding the correct drivers is really easy.

 

[Flyingraptor]

Well, after manually formating and reinstalling Windows and the drivers, everything went smoothly, except for Windows Update. Windows Update had about 100 updates to do, but after a long time waiting for them to download, install and configure, the pc shut down, but failed to restart. I had to use System Repair twice to overcome this error.
In the end I had to use an Windows PC-Restore back-up from somewhere in april, that I still had on my external HDD to recover the computer.
I really started to get annoyed by this and found out that I didn't HAD to put all this time in it, and could just use Dell Factory Image Restore to restore the pc back to factory settings.
That worked great, Windows Update installed all the updates without any problems and now the pc is completely fresh, clean and ready to go on to the next owner!

Thanks for your advice, guys!