Clean My Computer?

Question

I am getting a new computer soon and I am selling the one I have now.

How do I clean my computer so that it starts from new, delete EVERYTHING?

Answer 1

Format the hard drive .....heres how.....

STEP 1: This section explains how to reformat a drive from the Windows XP installation CD. This can be used when installing a fresh copy of Windows onto a computer. Here it is especially important to backup all of your important information because upon formatting you will lose EVERYTHING that used to be on the drive. This includes all applications and device drivers, so you must backup everything you can.

STEP 2: Insert your Windows XP installation disc into your CD drive (Home or Pro it does not matter).

STEP 3: Restart your computer. On the first screen that comes up as your computer starts it should say at the bottom a key that you can press to change the Boot Sequence (may also be called Boot Device or Boot Order), press whatever key is specified. If your computer does not give you the option to change the boot sequence directly from the startup screen you will need to enter your BIOS Setup by pressing whichever key your computer specifies for Setup, and then from the BIOS setup you need to change your boot order so that the CD drive is before Hard Disks. If all you see right when your computer starts up is a splash screen with the computer manufactuer's name press the 'Esc' key to display which keys to press for boot sequence or BIOS setup.

STEP 4: Now as you computer boots a little more it will say “Press any key to boot from CD..” press a key to do so.

STEP 5: The CD will load up a blue screen and then spend a while loading files it needs. When it is finished it will list a few options mainly “Press ENTER to set up Windows XP,” press Enter or Return.

STEP 6: Now you will be at a screen to select where to install Windows to, this is where you can delete old partitions and format drives. The box in the bottom half of the screen shows all your drives and the partitions that exist on them. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to highlight your “C:” partition and press the 'D' key (if all that shows up is “Unpartitioned space” and you have no C: or D: partitions skip this step). On the next screen press the 'L' key to finalize deleting the partition.

STEP 7: Now you are back on the screen to choose where to install Windows. The box on the lower half of the screen should no longer show a partition but simply have an entry “Unpartitioned space xxxxxMB.” Select this with the arrow keys and press the 'C' key to create a partition on the drive. The next screen tells you the minimum and maximum sizes the partition can be and lets you pick the size. The default size is the maximum, but double check that the number entered is the maximum and hit enter.

STEP 8: Now you will again be back at the choose where to install Windows screen only this time you will have a partition that looks something like this “C: Partition1 [New (Raw)] xxxxxxMB.” Highlight this entry and press enter.

STEP 9: The next screen lets you choose which filesystem to format the drive with. If your computer will be sharing files over a network with a Windows ME, 98, or 95 computer select “FAT32” otherwise choose NTFS as it is faster and more secure. If the drive is brand new and has never been used before then use one of the options that ends in “(Quick)” otherwise choose one of the lower down options. Use the arrow keys to select the proper one and press Enter or Return.

STEP 10: From here you are all set and the installation of Windows will proceed starting with a format of your drive. This will take a while (over half an hour) so you can go take a little break.

Answer 2

When you stsrt the computer, there should be a logo of the manyfacturer and up in the corner it should say press either F8 or F12, this should take you into a menu, go to something like boot order or something like that and make it so that the CD drive is first and the hard drive is second. Now come out of there wait for the computer to come back on... then insert the Windows XP installation disc and resart the computer. The computer will ask you to boot from CD by pressing any key, now it should ask if you want to install XP, it asks you what partion of the hard drive you want to install it on, delete them, then say instal XP. It will then format the computer and install XP, then it'll be like new... takes a long time though...

Answer 3

If you want to sell your old computer with the OS intact and just want to delete your personal files, use a secure shredder like Eraser which is free here
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Eraser/eraser.html

just right click a folder and shred it; you can specify the number of times you want your files overwritten

you can also right click your C drive and wipe the free space - this will make sure that any previously deleted stuff is irrecoverable too - use 3 times to be on the safe side but depending on the size of your hard drive it will take some time to complete

if you want to wipe the drive completely, then use Boot & Nuke which is included in Eraser; remember that merely formatting a hard drive does not make data irrecoverable

Answer 4

Sometimes when I sell a PC and I don't have the time to install an old operating system like Window 98 to show that the PC works, I just use killdisk. The free version boots off of a floppy and wipes out all of your data very well. Simple and fairly fast.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

the best thing to do is to take the hard drive out and slip in a new one then you will not be leaving any information for others to rip off your life with. there only about £40 and you can slip your old hard drive in your new comp as a slave for extra storage.

formatting does nothing to remove your data it is always accessible somehow. ie bank details if you have ever done online banking.

there are programs that claim to erase things on the net but the best way is to find a program which overwrites everything on your hard drive this makes it more innaccesible to others.

don't forget somebody will buy yours and then get rid of it and you have 80% chance it will end up in africa and they are trained to rip people off. thats why companies that take computers abroad are now removing hard drives and destroying the disks inside as it's the only sure way of destroying the data on them.

Answer 7

Deleting everything doen'st really clean up your pc, you need somthing to clean your hard drive, like an eraser, search google there are some free or shareware ones out there.

Answer 8

Yeh just delete everything mate exept for the internet and my computer etc dont delete the ones people always use. Hope i helped!

Answer 9

If your using a security or utility suite, look in there and see if there's a file wiper.Spybot S&D has one.Wipe everything with at least a nine pass wipe, personel info(SSAN, diaries,e-mail, financial) wipe with as many pass's that you can.Then reformat your drive,or if you're using XP, go to recovery console

Answer 10

Be really careful!!!

It all depends on how secure the information is, reformating will remove data yes however it is still possible to retrieve information of your hardrive, its extremly hard to do so, but is possible.

If you have v sensitive data that needs to be removed, get an expert to wipe it for you