Which program/method is best to completely delete all but the OS on the hard drive?

Question

I have seen programs that erease the entir hard drive but is there a way to save the operating system and delete everything else?

Answer 1

That's not considered best practice. Some of that "everything else" is either embedded in the operating system (like Internet Explorer) or allows you to do a few things (like Notepad to edit parameter files).

OK, you have removed all but the OS and rebooted. You are now looking at a blue screen. There's nothing under the Start button but a shutdown option. Where are you going from there?

Answer 2

documents that are deleted have the extension replaced, so as that it won't be in a position to be got here upon via the pc, however the document remains there. Dogcat.exe could get replaced to dogcat.exr or something. Erase courses will over write those documents three times, 7 circumstances, 15 circumstances or greater, observing this methodology and its purposes. whilst overwritten a minimum of 7 circumstances, they're rather difficult to study. So, the subject is, that used computers are being offered via extensive agencies that no longer choose them, with their difficult drives nonetheless in them and people promoting them think of they're erased, yet they do no longer seem to be, and so counsel from those agencies may well be had via somebody with the acceptable suited courses, to study the deleted documents. well-being center records, start certificates, own loan and mortgages, social secure practices numbers etc. an excellent sort of counsel available being had via scrupulous indivdiduals. agencies could actually break the difficult drives, this is burn them and destroy them, to do away with the fabric. There are different techniques, which includes magnetism, yet those techniques may well be high priced. think of of what you have on your pc. Do you maintain economic enterprise records, or scientific records, any form of non-public records that comprise counsel which you do no longer choose somebody to arise with? and then sometime, you commerce your previous gadget in for a clean one, and the previous one had your difficultcontinual with all the counsel on it. you may format it, yet a number of if nonetheless maintains to be. Re writting it many circumstances repeatedly, is concerning to the sole determination different then destroying the difficultcontinual. next time you commerce computers, be valuable to have your difficultcontinual wiped, via an erase application, that erases a minimum of 7 circumstances. greater could be greater valuable.

Answer 3

If you're using Windows, go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs and remove all programs listed from there.

If you're having a problem with spyware or viruses, I'd recommend AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy to remove them. I believe they're stil free downloads.

btw - Do NOT format C:! You'll lose your OS

Answer 4

Not that I know of after all the operating system is a program too.

Answer 5

here is a simple way to do.
1. click start
2. click run
3. type in cmd or command
4. (a box should come up) type in format C:
5. press enter
6. (it will ask your y or n) press y
7. press enter
8. all your information should be deleted after that.

Answer 6

No, not without spending WAY much more time than anybody wants to anyway. It is theoretically possible, but you would have to know exactly which files you need to keep which is just about impossible.

Answer 7

put in the OS cd and start up the computer, you need to set the cmos so that it boots from the cd, then tell the computer to format the harddrive and install the OS

Answer 8

add/remove programs and manually deleting files ...