Is there a way to erase EVERYITHING off a computer?

Question

My old computer was slow and worthless and continually crashing, so we bought a new one, I was wondering is there a way to fix the computer so that it is usable again. I dont care if I have to delete everything on it or whatever because I dont use it anymore

Answer 1

go to your normal screen with your backgroud and all that. Click on a short cut it has to be something like aim. Right click it and say delete it will say that you cant delete that youd just delete the shortcut but it will say you can "add or remove pragrams" click on that link and it will give you a list of everything on your cpu. make sure you dont delete anything nessasary like adobe.

Answer 2

It depends on what you want to do. Deleting a file off a hard drive does not mean that it is really gone. In fact the data will remain on the disk until it is overwritten. This is normally fine if you want to just free up some room or are not overly concerned with privacy/security.

If you would like to completely erase everything on the disk you will have to find a program that overwrites all the data on the disk with 0s or 1s. You can find a bunch of these on the internet.

Answer 3

If you don't care about the contents, then it is very easy. Just format the drive and reinstall the operating system.
For example, if you have a windows cd, just insert and it will ask you options for formating and clean install.

if you want to keep the contents, you can do the same but install OD in another drive. or use some third party software like "partition magic" or partition logic, which can aprtition your drive. then store data in one drive and format the other and install new OS.

Summary: The best way to refresh an old computer is to format hard drive and install operating system(say windows) fresh.

Answer 4

You can do System Restore if you have a DELL computer. It can take your computer back to the point when it was bought and new. This will delete everything. There are similar options like this on other computers too.

Answer 5

yes, there is a program on NTFS.com called KILLDISK and it will write your harddrive to all 0's which cannot contain data, after that the harddrive will have to be formatted before use.
Also, check the harddrive for name and visit the makers site, as they usually have downloadable tools to do the same thing.

Answer 6

As long as you have an installation disk to reinstall the OS I would suggest using DBAN to completely overwrite the hard disk.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Answer 7

format the harddrive, it will erase everything, and then you can do what you want with it. by doing so, you can use it in your other computer as a second harddrive