Wiping a PC clean without re-installing Windows

[DeadlyAkkuret]

I am selling a computer, or trying to, and want to leave as much memory on it as possible to get a better price. Is there a way I can strip it down and leave it with just the Windows XP and whatever programs came with it?

 

[Mr Eagle]

And by memory, you mean hard drive space, right?

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

That's right.

 

[standingroomonly]

How come you don't want to re-install windows?

Do you have a windows disk or access to one? A fresh install is the eastiest way to make sure you haven't left any of your data on there.

 

[Mr Eagle]

Well, for starters, I've never heard of anyone paying more or less for a machine on the basis of how much of the hard drive is currently unused, given that when they own the machine they can delete whatever the hell they want to make use of the drive's full capacity.

Having said that...the easiest thing to do would be to use Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs. Beyond that, you'll be manually hunting programs down and deleting the respective files.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

How come you don't want to re-install windows?

Do you have a windows disk or access to one? A fresh install is the eastiest way to make sure you haven't left any of your data on there.

I do, but I read on the Windows website that that disk alone might not have all the drivers etc. I don't have any of that on seperate disks so it was a concern.

It doesn't even seem to be working for me anyway, I put the installation CD in and restart but can't seem to begin any re-installation process. What am I doing wrong?

 

[standingroomonly]

I do, but I read on the Windows website that that disk alone might not have all the drivers etc. I don't have any of that on seperate disks so it was a concern.

It doesn't even seem to be working for me anyway, I put the installation CD in and restart but can't seem to begin any re-installation process. What am I doing wrong?

You can download the drivers in advance, if you know what type of motherboard and graphics card you've got it should be easy enough. Just go to the manufacturers website and download then burn to a cd.

You computer might not be setup to boot from a cd. go into your setup (usually by hitting delete key when it's starting up) and make sure that the cd drive is in the boot options.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/bootorderchange.htm

I think this walkthrough should show you what to do.

 

[prankmonkey]

you could try a system restore to the earliest date.
but a clean install of windows would work best
XP was pretty good driver wise from its install disk. and its not hard to find the rest of the drivers on the net

as for your not being able to install
enter your bios (press esc, del, f11/12 - whatever it asks you for during boot up) and change the boot order to CD first, then hard disk

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

You can download the drivers in advance, if you know what type of motherboard and graphics card you've got it should be easy enough. Just go to the manufacturers website and download then burn to a cd.

You computer might not be setup to boot from a cd. go into your setup (usually by hitting delete key when it's starting up) and make sure that the cd drive is in the boot options.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/bootorderchange.htm

I think this walkthrough should show you what to do.

I got into the setup before (yeah, I'm a genius) but didn't know I had to make that change. I guess I thought it would just be ready to re-install from the CD.

Thank you for the advice, I will try this again and get back to you.

 

[King Elvis]

Format it and re-install.

Put the windows disc in, boot to it (you'll need to push F8 or F12 or something - it'll come up with the 'Boot Menu' - then select CD), and tell it you want to re-install windows...

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

So I found the site that has all the drivers for this particular motherboard.

Here.

It gives me an option to install them, but I don't see an option to download the drivers onto a CD to install later. I wasn't planning on connecting it to the internet after re-installing Windows, but I guess I will have to?

 

[dav3]

So I found the site that has all the drivers for this particular motherboard.

Here.

It gives me an option to install them, but I don't see an option to download the drivers onto a CD to install later. I wasn't planning on connecting it to the internet after re-installing Windows, but I guess I will have to?

If you haven't got a USB flash drive go and grab one, you can pick them up for under $5. Download all the drivers (particularly the network drivers in case you need to go online and grab more when you're done), put them on the drive, then reinstall the PC.

 

[j-ham]

Download Crap Cleaner, it's free and has a tool that will wipe all the free space on your HD. The new owners won't be able to recover all of your filthy pornography.

 

[King Elvis]

So I found the site that has all the drivers for this particular motherboard.

Here.

It gives me an option to install them, but I don't see an option to download the drivers onto a CD to install later. I wasn't planning on connecting it to the internet after re-installing Windows, but I guess I will have to?

Don't worry about that, just do what I said.

The drivers for all of that stuff will be fine; afterwards, you might need to grab the updated ones for the GFX/Sound and possibly Network card, but all of the other gear will be fine.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Download Crap Cleaner, it's free and has a tool that will wipe all the free space on your HD. The new owners won't be able to recover all of your filthy pornography.

I'm not ashamed to have filthy pornography lol, it's the finer details that I worry about.