Seeking expert advice regarding laptop

[hotrocks68]

Hello people,

I am a pc numpty so please be gentle.Anyway i am selling one of my laptops which has windows xp on it.I want to wipe it clean of all my photos/files/info etc but i have no software /disks with it.
So basically can i wipe this laptop but still be able to sell it on working as normal with windows xp?.
Any advice(as simply put as possible)would be most appreciated.

Regards!

 

[Teris]

You can format it using a Windows XP install disc which will wipe your data and leave a fresh install of XP, i assume you still have the licence key on the underside of your laptop...

If you want it slightly more secure get a book disc with hard drive tools and format the drive, then write the whole disk with data then reinstall Windows over the top of that. The boot disc that this forum offers should do it using Darik's Boot and Nuke.

 

[hotrocks68]

Thankyou Teris,

In other words if i format the drive i need to get a disk to reinstall windows(i think doh).
I see the license key on the underside yes,this i presume is to know what disc to get.............sorry told you i know nothing about computers!

 

[Teris]

Basically yeah. Get an XP disc and boot to it to start the installation process. During installation you can format the hard drive. I'd avoid doing a NTFS (quick) format and do a full NTFS format if you're going to sell it.

Once finished you've got a clean XP install.

 

[hotrocks68]

Thankyou Teris for your advice,
i'll have a look around for an xp disc.

Regards.