How to completely delete my hard drive?

Question

I am going to sell it hence I want to be sure everything is gone.
i don't have a Windows 7 disc (the one I use on this computer) to reinstall the software, what should I do, for I fear there won't be any operating system any longer hence almost useless.

I am sorry if these are stupid questions but I know almost nothing about computer apart the basic.

Thank you if you could be quite specific with your answers.

Answer 1

Your question isn’t clear, are you just selling the hard drive or the whole computer. If you are just selling the hard drive, then download DBAN (google it), burn it to a CD or USB, then boot off the USB/CD and it will wipe the hard drive. There is no point in including windows 7 on the hard drive if you are selling it as activation is linked to the rest of the hardware on the original computer

If you are selling the whole computer and want to reinstall windows 7 Me2's suggestion of downloading windows iso files will only work if you have a retail version of windows 7 product key available, OEM product keys are rejected. You can still download Windows 7 from heidoc.net using the microsoft-windows-iso download tool

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool. The alternative would be to get a windows 7 reinstallation disk off amazon or ebay and use the product key on the green sticker on the case to activate the installation.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WINDOWS-PREMIUM-BASIC-RE-INSTALL-RECOVERY/dp/B00ILE7FFA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524120748&sr=8-3&keywords=windows+7+reinstallation+disk

Answer 2

 

Sw, your best option is to extract the Windows 7 Product Key (PK) from the registry, using any one of a number of free utilities.  Then, download a Windows 7 installation DVD image (ISO) file from Microsoft, and create a DVD or a bootable flash drive equivalent.  And finally, boot from the installation media, and either:

  Format the largest drive on the hard disk and install on that drive, or

  Delete all the partitions and allow Windows Setup to automatically create a new partition and install.



https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7



Note that PK should be printed on the Certificate of Authenticity (CoA) affixed to the computer.  If it's unreadable or missing, use a utility as described above.  I have NirSoft's ProduKey at hand for the task.



https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html



If you're unable to download the ISO from Microsoft, state the Windows 7 edition (Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, etc.), whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit, and if it was installed by the manufacturer.

Answer 3

Shut your computer down from the start menu restart your computer and as you restart your computer begin to push the f8 button repeatedly until you see the words repair my computer if someone has not messed up your computer you should be able to choose Advanced options and at the very bottom of advanced options you will see the factory recovery tool which will erase your computer and reinstall Windows Factory fresh Windows 7 comes with a factory recovery partition unless somebody has screwed up your computer and remove it you should be able to find it just the way I told you to

Answer 4

Selling a hard drive to someone is....eh....like you can do it! Just don't expect to get much unless it's a couple TB. All a hard drive does is hold data. You can put an OS on it, you can NOT put an Os on it. The buyer shouldn't expect an OS to be on there haha especially if they plop that hard drive in a random computer....ya, the OS won't like that xD If you want, you can "wipe" the drive which will kind of act like a stain remover. A washing machine gets rid of dirt on clothes, but there's always a dedicated stain or two you need to remove.

Answer 5

Install a version of Linux on it. It may not sell as well, but at least it will have an operating system and prove the hardware works. Also, installing Linux pretty well destroys the old Windows directory structure and overwrites parts of the entire disk with Linux files. This makes any Windows file recovery almost impossible (except for forensic firms). Normal users cannot recover any Windows files once you install Linux.

Popular Linux distros are Ubuntu and Mint, easy to find and install....

Answer 6

First off, the other answer is BS since you say clearly that you don't have an install disk. You might even have some issues trying to sell it without a Windows disk. Anyway, you can't format the drive as you suspect because it won't have an OS. Go into control panel and uninstall everything you want to uninstall. Most programs you could actually leave, I would think. Then open up your file explorer (right click the start button and click on "explore"). The only thing that involves privacy is your pictures and documents. Make sure you have saved what you want elsewhere. Go into those folders on the left panel. On the right panel click the first file, scroll to the bottom file, hold down SHIFT and click on it, which will select everything in between. Then hold down SHIFT and hit delete (on the keyboard) - that will delete the files instead of sending them to the recycle bin. Say yes to anything that asks if you are sure. You can do this in any folder you like but stay out of the whole Windows folder. Then empty the recycle bin, go to RUN off the start button and type cleanmgr, which will run disk cleanup. Check off everything and run it. That could take a couple of hours...... That's about what you can do, since you can't just format the drive.

Answer 7

EDIT: If you don't have one, make a recovery disc



Follow these steps to create a system repair disc:



Click Start , and then click Control Panel.

Under System and Security, click Back up your computer. ...

Click Create a system repair disc. ...

Select a CD/DVD drive and insert a blank disc into the drive. ...

When the repair disc is complete, click Close.









First if your computer came with windows 7 embedded, then after the computer is formatted, the operating system will be returned. Anything else that you added/installed will not be returned.



The enclosed link will help you to reformat the computer



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Thank you