how do i completely erase my hard disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paddy
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Paddy

I have a pentium II computer with 7.89 GB of storage that my kids use to
surf the web and any time it is turned on then It says that the the computer
has only less that 200 megabytes of storage and that it needs more than that
inorder for the computer to function effeciently.
I want to know if I can fully erase all of the data stored on the computer
without deleting any of windows components. I also want to know if erasing
the hard drive would cause the computer to have problems.

Thanks
Paddy
 
Paddy said:
I have a pentium II computer with 7.89 GB of storage that my kids use to
surf the web and any time it is turned on then It says that the the computer
has only less that 200 megabytes of storage and that it needs more than that
inorder for the computer to function effeciently.
I want to know if I can fully erase all of the data stored on the computer
without deleting any of windows components. I also want to know if erasing
the hard drive would cause the computer to have problems.

Thanks
Paddy
Click to expand...

Well, since the OS is stored on the HD, completely erasing the HD will
make the PC unbootable. Erasing the data files will not affect the OS,
but you need to know which files are data and which are OS -- then
delete the unwanted data files.

If you can boot up the OS and the OS is XP, then run Explorer, right-click
on the C: HD, the click on Properties, then click on DiskCleanup. That
may lead you to a few items you can easily and safely remove. Next, fire
up the browser and delete its temp files; if you use IE, click on Tools,
then on InternetOptions, then DeleteFiles (and DeleteAllOfflineContent)
and ClearHistory. That should get a bunch of space back.
 
Paddy said:
I have done that several times but nothing happened to the Hard Disk
Storage.
Click to expand...

If the quick fixes don't help, then you must decide -- file by file or,
at least, folder by folder -- what you can safely delete.

To be safe, don't actually delete files about which you are unsure;
instead, move them to some folder like \TempTrash\ and see if your
PC still works -- if it does, then you can delete them; else, move
them back to the original home. If you use XP (without Norton and its
ilk), this is what really happens when you click on a file/folder and
then hit the Delete button -- it is a "soft delete" that you can take
back. And now that you know what Delete really does (under XP), you
may have the explanation for why deleting a bunch of stuff does not
increase available space on your HD: you need to right-click on the
RecycleBin, then click on Empty to make the files actually go away.
 
Paddy said:
I have done that several times but nothing happened to the Hard Disk
Storage.
Click to expand...

Let your fingers do the walking. Shop around, find a bigger HDD. For an
ATA66 for a
P2, somebody will probably give you one.
Good Luck
 
This is an info

WINDOWS operating system will not defrag and prompt error message when
the disk is 85% full regarding of its operating system.

:idea:
 
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