erasing EVERYTHING!

W

wunstaboi

New Member
hello, im new here... but i wanted to know how can i erase everything and then get it back to the state when i first bought it? I am going to give my computer away, so i want to know how can i erase everything? I have a dell desktop with window xp home edition. Thanks!
 
Take the XP cd that it should have came with. Put it in the drive, reboot, let it start the cd. Follow the on screen instructions. When it comes to pick a partition, delete the current partition, and create a new one, then install Windows. Follow on screen instructions and BAM, your done.
 
If you are wanting to make sure your personal data is 100% unrecoverable, formatting the drive won't provide sufficient protection. Data can still be recovered by one of the many data recovery programs/services available. It would take a skilled user, admitted, so it depends who you will be donating your pc to. But you should probably seek out a program to write over the entire drive with random data, something like this. Do this after you've reinstalled Windows as evanscnce has said, by wiping the free space on the drive. Then you'll be good to go.
 
Overwriting all files would be the best bet, but it too has its flaws, if you read the description in the bottom paragraph of that chaos shredder's site it says "CHAOS Shredder will completely erase files from your disk, without the possibility to recover it by any practical software or hardware methods." Recovering these files is still possible, i have no clue how, but i know it can be done. The only way to permanently get rid of all your files would be to have the person you are giving the computer to buy a new hard drive, then remove yours, and take the top cover off and take a torch to the plates.
 
Unless you're expecting the CIA to want to see what you've been up to, I'd say you're safe. There are techniques that can detect residual magnetic traces, but that falls beyond the realm of even commercial recovery specialists.
 
Put the XP reboot disk in and start up in Dos mode, then run 'fdisk.exe' without the quotations. You will arrive at the partition screen. View all your partitions and delete all. Then start a new partition from scratch. Once you have done this re-install XP.

It worked for me.
 
adz_619 said:
Put the XP reboot disk in and start up in Dos mode, then run 'fdisk.exe' without the quotations. You will arrive at the partition screen. View all your partitions and delete all. Then start a new partition from scratch. Once you have done this re-install XP.

It worked for me.
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I dont thik that would securely delete the info like magicman said Data can still be recovered by one of the many data recovery programs/services available.
 
Nevakonaza said:
I dont thik that would securely delete the info like magicman said Data can still be recovered by one of the many data recovery programs/services available.
Click to expand...

If he has a backup, he can restore from that point. Thats another option.

Ot just use a recovery program, but i do not think they are as effective. He wants the computer as he wants it...recovery services promote lag.
 
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