Is there a way to completely wipe everything off my computer besides doing the system restore thing?

Answer 1

If you are trying to completely wipe your hard drive, then f-disk from a command prompt will do it.

Answer 2

I think what you want to do is format your system. To do that you'll need either:

a. Your Operating System CD, such as Windows XP.

or

b. A partitioning program like Paragon Partition Manager or Partition Magic.

In both cases you will need an OS afterwards to install cause without it your computer won't work. So I guess its best to go with plan a. All you need to do is insert your CD and restart your pc. Then when prompted boot from your CD and select the option to fresh install windows. You will be asked if you want to format your hard drive. Simply accept and all your files have been wiped and your computer is as good as new.

Just make sure you backup all important data, cuase it will be very hard to get it back.

Answer 3

You can format your hard drive. Basically, it puts a new file system on your drive, which erases everything. That would make it unusable though. If you want to erase everything but still have a usable computer, you should get your operating system's installation discs (or a GNU/Linux LiveCD) and install the operating system fresh. This takes a bit of computer literacy though, so if you don't know a whole lot about computers I would recommend just deleting anything that isn't necessary.

Answer 4

The boot and nuke disc will permanently erase the hard drive. If your getting rid of the pc, that's the way to go. If you wish to keep the o/s, and get rid of the fluff, just reinstall the o/s, then do a clean sweep to overwrite the deleted data. Norton makes it. To just get rid of what you don't want, use windirstat. That lists everything on the hard drive, and you can delete from there. Still need a clean sweep to make it go away permanently, though. I prefer the dban boot and nuke, it does a DoD wipe, and then reinstall the o/s, if desired.

Answer 5

examine the cables on the disk force to make beneficial no longer something is unfastened. If that fails hook up the disk force to a various laptop and see in case you may get admission to the archives. If the force continues to be good then you are able to reproduction your archives and then reinstall abode windows, which will erase the force, and reinstall all your utility. If the different laptop can not examine the force and might't even format it (erase each thing and start up over), then you might desire to interchange it with a clean disk force. then you placed in abode windows on that disk force as a exchange. If the force is broken then you might desire to pay a expert restoration provider (no longer purely some time-honored geek squad) a ton of money to get well your archives or forget approximately them. in case you prefer to try this then do no longer format the force or reinstall abode windows, on condition that which will erase each thing. Tech help ought to charge $50-$a hundred to wipe your laptop and start up over, although this is extraordinarily common to do your self in case you have each and all of the CDs. this is as a rule countless waiting; have something else you're able to do for a pair hours whilst pressing "ok" and swapping CDs lots. in case you do no longer understand a thank you to get began you purely put in the abode windows CD and locate the alternative on your BIOS ("hit del to go into setup") to make it boot from CD-ROM first. "Boot order" or something. lower back be warned this might erase each thing you had.

Answer 6

I still keep an old Win98SE boot disk just for that purpose.

Pop it in, boot to the floppy (assuming you have one) and format away.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Of course it also depends on WHY you are clearing everything off as well. If you are doing it just to ahve a clean hard drive for reinstall, then the above directions will work, so will a CD with XP on it. If you are doing it to clean off specific files (private information etc.), then there are programs made specifically for that. The one I use is:

http://www.iolo.com/sm/7/

Answer 7

system restore wont delete everything off your computer it just puts your computer to a previous state. to wipe everything and start fresh you would have to Format your computer (erases everything on the hard drive) then reinstall windows. as well as all ur drivers for your internet/video/sound etc. (get these before you format so your already pre-prepared)

Answer 8

Format and resinstall the OS (Operating System eg. Windows XP)

Deletes ALL files.
Other than that? Delete key.

Answer 9

Certainly. I like Darik's Boot & Nuke.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Answer 10

afraid not,but if you fromat 7 times you will have a clean system,takes a while but it will ckear problems you do not know about