Want to erase EVERYTHING of an old computer?

Question

I have an older Windows XP computer that I want to get rid of, but I want to erase everything. Is there something that I can download onto a disk and put it into my old computer so it will get rid of everything and it has to be free.

Answer 1

If you want to completely erase everything so it cannot be recovered, you need to do a low level format.  Go the website of your hard drive manufacturer to download a program specifically for their hard drive.  Here is a link to such programs for major manufacturers -

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low-l...

Answer 2

There is a disk you can buy from computer shops i don't think there much and they completely erase everything the only bad thing if you want to still use your computer (because it got a virus or something) then you've got to install everything important like the internet,internet security,router (if you have a laptop) which gets kind of annoying but if you want to get rid of your pc then this disk would be a good idea because when you get your new pc if it gets viruses you can take them of

Answer 3

You could perform a format of the entire hard drive (Note: This will also delete your windows XP installation on that machine). However, simple formatting will not remove the actual information on the disk. This means that the data will be recoverable with 3rd party software or tools.

You can perform the format by creating a windows start-up floppy (or CD) for example. Insert a blank floppy, go to My Computer, right-click on the floppy drive, choose Format, Check the option Create a MS-DOS Start-up disk.

Another way is for you to download and burn the latest version of Ubuntu on a CD. It has a "live" operating system that will boot into the memory of the PC and will provide you with a friendly set of tools to format and repartition your hard disk.

Answer 4

Of up know which harddrive you have (eg. seagate,western digital, maxtor) you can download a utility from there website that will low level format your hdd.  For example seagate has a utility called seatools.  hope this helps.  thx

Answer 5

Yes. Dan's Boot and Nuke.  AKA DBAN.  G..gle it.

Answer 6

Or. You can take the harddrive from your old computer and put it in the new one? Well if the old harddrive is good enough

Answer 7

Why not do a clean install of Windows from your windows CD.

It will be like new then with no accounts and no data files.

Boot the computer to the Windows CD and when you get the option Delete the existing partition(s) then install.

Answer 8

Make/Order Recovery Discs for your computer. If it's a store bought computer, you can usually make recovery discs for it, if it didnt come with it. On my HP Pavilion dv8230us laptop, to make them, I click Start, All Programs, System Recovery, PC Recovery Disc Creator. They take you through it step by step. It might be different for your computer. Otherwise you can usually order them from the manufacturer's website, paying only for shipping.

Then format the hard drive (for instructions: http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard... (By formatting you're erasing all information on the hard drive. All programs, games, documents, even Windows XP itself will be erased, so be sure that you have no files that you want to keep.)

Next you put in your recovery discs and install them. The manufacturer's usually make it pretty simple. This will reinstall Windows XP and pretty much restore the computer entirely to the state  it was in when you first bought it.

Next, if you want, you can update Windows using Windows Update (Start, All Programs, Windows Update (towards the top))

Finally, sell the computer.

Also, after formatting, a person can recover files using third party software, but I've heard if you format 7 or 8 times in a row, only then the data is truely deleted. It's up to you how many times you format though.