Clearing out my computer/hard drive

[bryan123]

Okay, so i have a new laptop. And i wanna give my old laptop to my mom. But i want all my files and stuff off it. Kind of like a reformat. How would i go about that? Even if i use the return to factory settings option.. i heard some files and settings might be recoverable...

I heard i should use DBAN (dariks boot and nuke) program...

 

[Joe C]

Does your hard drive have a recovery partition or do your have oem restore disks?

 

[carnageX]

DBAN / KillDisk aren't necessary. Those are for when you plan to discard an HDD (prior to physically destroying it...) or reuse it for a different person.

You can just reformat during the Windows install setup, or from the recovery partition (if you have one).

 

[krazyq]

Okay, so i have a new laptop. And i wanna give my old laptop to my mom. But i want all my files and stuff off it. Kind of like a reformat. How would i go about that? Even if i use the return to factory settings option.. i heard some files and settings might be recoverable...

I heard i should use DBAN (dariks boot and nuke) program...

If it has a recovery partition.
Use that.
There are options to restore without saving files.
What's your laptop model.
It's always tricky trying to figure out which keys to hit during startup to activate the restore software

 

[bryan123]

i have windows 7 home premium on a acer aspire laptop. there is an option in control panel then i hit recovery button then i hit advanced recovery options and there is option that says: Return your computer to factory condition... should i use that? or something else?

EDIT: how do i find out if my hard drive has a recovery partition?

 

[Joe C]

i have windows 7 home premium on a acer aspire laptop. there is an option in control panel then i hit recovery button then i hit advanced recovery options and there is option that says: Return your computer to factory condition... should i use that? or something else?

EDIT: how do i find out if my hard drive has a recovery partition?

That option access your recovery partition, it is usually hidden.
Once you make this choice, everything you have on your hard drive will be gone and the pc will be like it was the day you bought it. That means you'll need to update Windows and antivirus. If you want any other software that did not come with this laptop, you'll need to re-install that too

 

[carnageX]

i have windows 7 home premium on a acer aspire laptop. there is an option in control panel then i hit recovery button then i hit advanced recovery options and there is option that says: Return your computer to factory condition... should i use that? or something else?

EDIT: how do i find out if my hard drive has a recovery partition?

Look under "Computer" to see if you have a partition named "Recovery" or something like that. If you don't see one there, then try:
Start -> right click "Computer" -> Manage -> on the left panel click "Disk management" -> on the right side see if there's multiple partitions on your main HDD.

But yes, generally "return to factory conditions" will format the primary (C partition and reinstall Windows.