How do you clean up the harddrive on the computer and erase everything???

Question

I got this computer from a friend and i want to start from scratch so how do you clear everything out?? just the hard drive and history and all those things. Is there a step by step process?

I want to delete everything the person has.. not the whole operating system .. just all the junk and the persons history

Answer 1

Do you mean you want to delete the operating system entirely, or do you mean that you want to erase everything belonging to that person?

If the former, that is one process.

If the latter, I can give you numerous things to do to rid the machine of another person's crap.

I've done both.

Give more details, and I'll help you out.

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First, realize that this may take some time.

1) Go to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Look at the list of the programs this person has installed. If there are any you don't want, remove them. This may require numerous reboots, since after you remove some programs, the OS prompts you to reboot.

2) Find the person's My Documents folder. If you can't find it, do a search (Run, Search, For Files and Folders). Once you locate it, delete every flippin' thing in there.

3) Right-click on and then delete everything on the desktop that you don't want. (Some people store crud on their desktop.)

4) Open up Internet Explorer. Go to Tools, Internet Options, Reset Web Settings.

5) Then, also in IE, go to Tools, Internet Options, click the Content tab, Auto Complete, and then hit Clear Forms, then Clear Passwords.

6) Also in IE, go to View, Explorer Bar, History. Right click on all the history that appears and delete it.

7) Go to Start, Run, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Run the Disk Cleanup. Check all of the boxes that appear once Disk Cleanup has assessed the damage, then hit

8) Find the cookies folder. Start, Search, For Files and Folders, then type in "temporary internet." Delete everything in there, including the cookies.

9) Some people store lots of pics, movies, and music on their computers. Find the folders named My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, and sometimes Share (you know how to search by now), open 'em, see if there's junk in there, and if so (and you don't want it), delete it.

When you are finished cleaning out all this garbage, you should do a Disk Defragment (Start, Run, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter).

Answer 2

Well if you're wanting to clear out all the junk...the problem would be installed programs. Sometimes not all programs uninstall executables are not contained in add/remove programs so you can't uninstall. Also registry entries may not be removed which can lead to slowdowns.

I'd say the best way to guarantee it running as fast as possible and free of all previous users data is to just reinstall the operating system. To reinstall the OS (install, setup windows), it should take 1 hour to 3 hours depending on the speed of the computer. So pop in that windows cd and wipe it clean.

Answer 3

There is tons of methods, to totally clean up a hard-drive and still use it, you need to do a low-level (restore to factory) format of it, thats the only true way to totally erase everything, thats pretty difficult to do without having at least some knowledge.

Other methods include using software to remove historys, tuneup 2006 is pretty good at removing old data.

The other method to totally erase all the data is the hammer method, but I don't think it applys in your case. lol

Answer 4

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Answer 5

create a new user account, then remove the old one...
then,
detele file by file what you don't use...
remove the tempory internet files and cookies...
...