How do I clear my hardrive????

Question

I would like to sell or give my computer to someone,so how would I clear everything off of my hard drive so none of my personal business items such as passwords,banking items checking items credit card numbers and all else be deleted from the old computer??? thank you very much

Answer 1

format C:/

Answer 2

You format your harddrive by sticking a win 98 or win me floppy startup disk in when you restart your computer, then follow instructions. when it finally gets to A: put in format C: and it asks Y or N say Y and it does it. Now that guy that said reinstall XP is wrong! It does NOT format if you had anything on your drive such as a game or like....it leaves it in program files. Icons will be gone but not the programs. You have to do a thorough format like I described. If you don't have a floppy, Take it to Geeks at best buy.

Answer 3

The "cleansing" technique works via putting off the hard disk drive and employing a USB adapter, connecting it to a diverse computing device. which will use your previous HD like a bounce force. Then he would be able to work out all your stuff. To "sparkling" you run a software that over-writes all the sectors on the complicated force with random kinds of 0's and a million's to make the records unreadable. The "wipe" technique would properly be downloaded from the internet or offered. Thats what the government makes use of whilst they get rid of computers. I often drill some holes in the complicated force or %. it in the rubbish and toss it.you are able to continually hit it some circumstances with a hammer and say "look dad- I saved you time!!! ALL wiped sparkling!!"

Answer 4

You need to get a windows cd and tell it you want to install windows(don't worry you will not reinstall it if you don't want) The cd will ask you if you want to get rid of a partition press what every key it tells you to press then, it will ask you a couple of more things press what ever key it tells you then finally it will ask you if you want to format your disk. Say yes. after it formats it will automatically start installing you can now stop the installation if you want and your disk is formatted. You cannot format your disk by control panel. It will not allow you to format the disk with windows on it. As far as I know you must do it this way.

Answer 5

If the person whom you sell can istall the os and other software then you format your hard drive, otherwise you have to delete the data you used. to format your hard drive start your computer with a bootable disk and and after starting it in command prompt type format /all,and then enter. it will ask for confirmation, confirm format and it will format all your hard drive. if you want to delete data then delete the data directories you created. all temp files and folders. temporary internet files, and applicattion data and local users data. it will deleted all your users data from your computer.

Answer 6

The best thing to do is format your harddrive by simply reinstalling windows XP. This will format (erase) all content then install a fresh copy of XP.

Answer 7

There is a lot of software out there which claims it can clean your hard drive..DON'T believe it!! The only way to be sure is to DISTROY your drive.You can purchase another hard drive,install it, and still sell your computer for a profit

Answer 8

format, but I'm not sure because I'm not well conversant with computer stuffs. In fact i have joined you guys so that you can help me out

Answer 9

delete all cookies, but the best way is to format the HD and install everything all over

Answer 10

go to the command prompt (start - programs - accessories - command prompt) and type

format C:

then hit ENTER