If you plan to sell or donate your computer, you should know how to completely wipe a PC. Thus, MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended. You can use it to erase your computer easily. Buy Now. Then, click Bootable Media after registering your account. Then, choose the media destination. Step 3: Similarly, set in the Firmware to make the computer boot from the bootable disk.
Then, right-click a disk and select Wipe Disk. Step 5: Choose how to wipe a hard drive. Then, you could also use MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a new partition if you want to install new OS on the computer. You can refer to the following tutorial. Step 1: Right-click on the gray Unallocated space and choose Create.
Step 2: Set parameters for the new partition. You should choose file system type cautiously, but for other parameters, you can keep their defaults. Then, click OK button. Step 3: Click Apply button to carry out the partition creation command.
Then, you can install a new OS on your computer. You can use Windows installation media to install the operating system. No matter what method you choose, MiniTool Partition Wizard is a tool that you deserve because it is a powerful program for managing partition. You can also use it to prevent your computer from being full of trashes. Here are three methods used for deleting everything on Windows 7.
If you plan to delete everything on your Windows 7 computer and start over, you will need it. Click to tweet. Is this article helpful to you? We need your feedback. If you are confused about the content in this article or have other related problems, please leave a comment below for discussion or email us at [email protected] for help. We will reply to you as soon as possible. Download Partition Wizard. Summary : How to delete everything on Windows 7 and Windows 10?
Tip: The target location must be unallocated space. Otherwise the Next button is grayed out. Note: This factory reset option will appear only if the computer manufacturer has created a hidden recovery partition for your computer. Tip: If your computer doesn't have the preinstalled recovery partition, the factory reset option will be replaced by the following option: "Reinstall Windows requires Windows installation disc ".
Microsoft recommend this if the clear all option is the selected all files and non original software plus all accounts are removed and one administration account is established if passing on or selling. Is there still any concern about private data still residing somewhere which would need further action after the reset? Thanks Jonathan.
A deleted file recovery utility would be able to recover the deleted files. Running a free space wiping utility like the one in CCleaner would help with that and it would be secure against normal attempts to recover the data.
Forensic recovery methods might be able to recover some of the data. This article explains how. How should I erase my hard drive before I give it away?
Leo, would using a demagnetizer do the trick? Having read all this, I am glad that we have kept all of our old computers we even still have our Apple IIe. It may be time to open a museum. When I gave my brother my old computer, I created a new user account and deleted the other account.
That way most, if not all of the user-created data is deleted and recovering any traces would require some serious computer skills and he has trouble with the basics. Unfortunately, those no longer exist. I should have run a free-space wipe after that.
If I keep the device I can install a new OS on the drive. IF I am donating the machine to a local used computer store, I take the drive out, take it to my drill press and drill through the drive and donate the machine. No one can retrieve data from that hard drive. No need to destroy a perfectly good disk drive.
DBAN is just as secure and you get to reuse the hard drive. Yes, a single pass is sufficient to wipe an SSD.
And more writes will shorten the life of the drive. Generally single pass wiping works for SSDs, but then there are reports that perhaps not? And of course physical destruction works. Just my 2 cents worth, I would go a little further, as far as the Single Admin Account. I would create a new Admin Account, login with it then remove all other accounts, being sure to select Delete All Files. No one seems to have mentioned the Windows license.
I may be mistaken about that. If you bought a retail Windows license, then you would be able to transfer that license to the new computer, assuming you removed it from the original. I often setup and transfer data and programs from the old pc to new.
In a protective way and mark it as to where it came from and date. Seniors seldom save files in appropriately designated folders and their jpgs are scattered all over the pc: in desktop, downloads, pictures, documents, 5 year old email folders and other strange places.
My suggestion to them is to make a petunia planter or boat anchor from the pc case. Seems like the intent is always to give it to a grandson but never makes it out of the closet. Search the drive for any image and video files and copy them to the new machine and move them to appropriate folders on the older drive.
Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam.
All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication. I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read. Search Ask Leo! How can I securely delete everything except the operating system? Delete and uninstall data and programs. Remove users. Run a disk cleaning utility. Delete some system files. Wipe free space. Alternately: erase everything, including Windows. Podcast audio. Video Narration.
Several times even… to be sure. Actually my recollection is that it may have changed over time. Thirty-five passes, on the other hand, are just plain idiocy.
If you nuke the hard drives all hard drives if more than one , then I believe selling a machine with an empty hard drive is safe. This article is scary and should be required reading. Vista should be somewhat similar. I use Privazer to erase all without trace. Try it! Could you do a factory reset, then take a backup image, then wipe with DBAN, then restore? Sorry, just saw the previous comments regarding the same question. General question. What have you heard about PcMatic? Good, bad or neither?
Thanks Jonathan Reply. But essentially this is clean reinstall of Windows. Would running such a device thoroughly over the disk platter suffice to erase it? That was the first comment I made to this article.
I mentioned the TOS in the article. Sorry — must have missed it. Hard disk changes the magnetic property of platter surface to 1 or 0 when reading or writing data. Thus all data on hard drive will be finally stored in the form of basic binary data, for example, when system saves data like photos, music, etc. When a file is deleted, those ones and zeros of that files stays unaffected, for only a pointer indicating the file is being deleted.
Therefore, the recovering deleted files is available before file data gets overwritten or damaged. What about disk formatting? Formatting works in a similar way, as it does not actually wipe data. Formatting disk or partition looks like tearing the contents of a book without disturbing actual chapters of the book. Recovery software is also able to retrieve lost files from formatted disk.
You may wonder how disk wiping works since deletion and formatting does not work on permanently clean hard drive. Apart from physical damage to hard drive, we can completely remove data with disk wiping technology. As we've mentioned above, to completely erase disk, we should remove those binary data, which means overwriting those zeros and ones with new data. Once binary data of a file is replaced and overwritten by new data, it cannot be recovered any more. Some professional disk eraser software is able to filling up disk with zeros or random information sector by sector, ensuring no data can be recovered from a wiped disk.
Some preparatory work should be done before wiping computer hard drive in order to make sure the disk wiping can be completed without interruption or causing extra issues. Once everything gets ready, you can start erasing computer hard drive or external disks. The rest part of this instruction will show you how to wipe a hard drive, external disk, SD card or flash drive via different ways. This method wipes computer by using the reset feature in Windows 8. This section takes Windows 10 as example to explain how to wipe computer completely.
If your computer is running an older version of Windows, you can try steps in Method 2 to erase hard disk. Here are steps to wipe a hard drive in Windows Step 1. Click " Start " menu and select " Settings " option. Step 2. Click " Recovery " option on the left navigation options and then click " Get Started " button under " Reset this PC " section.
Step 3. Select " Remove everything " option. This will remove all of your personal files, apps, and settings and start over. Step 4. Select " Remove files and clean the drive " when you are asked to whether to clean the drives too. The cleaning process may take longer time but it makes sure no one can recover erased files.
Step 5. Click " Next " and " Reset " button on following steps to complete the task. The secure way to erase data for good is overwriting data and refill hard disk using zeros or random data, so that nobody can recover wiped data with disk recovery software. Sounds complex? Actually, nowadays cleaning hard disk is not a complicated work, and you can easily and securely erase disk using disk wipe software. DiskGenius is free software for permanently data wiping. With this hard disk eraser, you can wipe all data on by filling disk sector by sector, making files unrecoverable.
Here are features of disk wiping function:. The following content introduces how to erase data in difference situations, and you can choose which to use in line with actual demands, for instance, you want to clear an SD card or other removable devices, Case 1 is the proper solution; if you want to wipe computer, then go to Case 2.
By way of the free disk erasure DiskGenius Free Edition, you can completely wipe hard drives and removable drives via rewriting sectors to 00 or random characters. Thus, files on the hard drive cannot be recovered by any method, ensuring privacy. Connect the removable device to your computer and make sure it can be recognized by Windows. Install and run DiskGenius from your PC and you can see all local disks and portable devices on the main interface.
Select the external hard drive or SD card you want to erase data, and select " Erase Sectors " option under Tools menu. Select items to fill disk sectors and click Erase button on the popped-up window. There are four options to fill disk sectors in the drop-down list, i. You can either choose one from "00, FF and Random Data", or specify item to fill disk. DiskGenius asks confirmation for the action, click Erase button to continue. Since the process wipes data permanently, you should make sure you are erasing correcting disk and important files have been backed up.
Step 6.
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