Restting windows to factory settings

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buffy2k5

Hey i want to sell my computer but want to erase everything so it is as
if new. with everything erased. Is there anyway i can do this without
formatting drive? im on windows xp home edition.

thanks in advance!!!
 
Deleted files can be recovered..........Files formatted out of existance can
also be recovered but it costs more$$$$$
If you really wish to "erase" everything then format the drive and look for
a program that writes 0's to the drive..no recovery possible.
If you are selling with XP installed you will not be able to install that
version of XP onto your new system.
If you bought a system that had XP installed at the "factory" did it come
with a set of "restore" CD's??
These usually format the drive and reinstall all programs to a state just
like when you first bought it.
hope this helps
peterk
 
In a nutshell No!
I assume you will be selling it complete with operating system? If so you
are going to need to reformat the drive and reinstall windows xp home onto
the system.
You will also need to give the purchaser the windows xp cd (assuming you
have a boxed retail copy) or the relevant recovery disks. You won't be able
to install xp on the pc you sell and keep the cd to install on a new pc
because you won't be able to activate the same copy of xp on two machines.
 
In
buffy2k5 said:
Hey i want to sell my computer but want to erase everything so
it is
as if new. with everything erased. Is there anyway i can do
this
without formatting drive? im on windows xp home edition.
Click to expand...


Why do you want to do it with formatting the drive? If your drive
is not NTFS, you could boot to a DOS diskette and delete all the
files, but the result is almost exactly the same.
 
buffy2k5 said:
Hey i want to sell my computer but want to erase everything so it is as
if new. with everything erased. Is there anyway i can do this without
formatting drive? im on windows xp home edition.
Click to expand...


No, not really.

To protect your personal information and data from any future users
of average skills, you should, at the very least, format the hard drive
and reinstall only the OS and those applications whose licenses are to
be included in the sale/transfer. If you wish to do a more thorough job
of protecting your personal data, WipeDrive 2.2.1
(http://www.accessdata.com/Product07_Overview.htm?ProductNum=07) meets
U.S. DoD standards for securely cleaning surplus unclassified hard
drives, and could be used before formatting and reinstalling the OS and
applications.


--

Bruce Chambers

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both at once. - RAH
 
What actually happens is that you 'think' you delete all the critical data
along with the rest, but all it does is sever the link to that data, which
remains on the drive until at some later stage it's over-written by newer
information and gone to God.
While it's still sitting there, anyone with a bit of knowledge can access
and recover all that data.
You need a good 3rd. party software capable of completely erasing the whole
drive
 
-- Or just replace the drive with a new one, drill a hole through the old
one & bin it.
 
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