Solved How do I wipe the C drive of all my data and preserve the OS ?

[ROsness]

I have heard there is a way to clean a hard drive of all but the OS using System Restore.
I want to sell or give it away. More help on this would be appreciated!

 

[SIW2]

I have heard there is a way to clean a hard drive of all but the OS using System Restore

No. But depending on your machine, you might have a mechanism for doing a factory restore.

If your machine didnt come with that, then best clean the disk and then do a fresh reinstall.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

In the past, I've been given PC's that still had the previous owners data on it. I didn't want to wipe the drive, and loose the OS and all the drivers, which could be hard to replace, so here's what I did.

I went into "Users" in the control panel and made a new user for myself, with Admin Priveledges. Then I booted up the PC to the new user.
Again I went into "Users" and deleted the old user. When you delete a user, Windows also deletes all the files created by that user. It's like that old user never existed. The OS and all the hardware drivers are preserved.
It's also a good idea to give the HD a good cleaning. My favorite program for that, is "Win Utilities".

Cheers Mate!
TM

 

[samuria]

Depends why you want to do this if your selling the only safe way is to do a clean install any other way deleted files can be recovered and details may be in other things like browser registery

 

[ROsness]

Thanks to all - there were several useful suggestions. I'm marking thread as closed.
Robert Osness

 

[ColourOz]

Many years ago I purchased a program which has a life-time registration and updates and cheap, TeraByteUnlimited. You can backup your drive to CDs, USB or any other media.

When I set up a new HD and have installed Windows, I fully backup the drive and save the .tbi file. As an example, I then add a program, eg. MS Office and back up again and so on. If you come to the crunch that the drive fails, you can then use the first backup and restore Windows, or if you want to restore the OS and the following program, you then restore with backup 2 and so on. The plus side is that you never have to register the programs and they are set up to your liking.

I understand that this is not the answer to your request, but may be of assistance in the future.

 

[Alejandro85]

Whenever a computer changes owner, the ONLY sane solution to the previous user's data is a complete reformat and clean install of the OS. This not only ensures data is gone and terribly difficult to recover, but also that all system files are also left in a known-well state.

All cleanup utilities, while they might delete some things, also miss others and don't care about possible undeletions. Those are nice for general mainteinance, but for giving a computer away, they're simply not enough. A full reinstall will solve both problems.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

The guys who wrote Windows 7 are smarter than the average bear.

They provided a way that a computer can be moved from one owner to another. Like, dad wants to give his PC to his son. etc.

Everything dad ever saved on his PC was keyed, in the registry, to his user name. So to give the PC to his son, Dad will go in to "Users" in the control panel and create a New User for his son. Then he will exit out of Windows. Rebooting the PC will present dad with a login screen, where he can log in as the New User (his son). Once logged in as the son, he can again go into the Control Panel - Users, and delete his old user (himself)
So now, everything dad ever saved as data is GONE. The slate has been wiped clean. To complete the 'wipe', defragment the drive.
Not only is the OS preserved, but all the hardware drivers as well. Depending on the manufacturer and age of the system involved, finding all the manufacturers Drivers can be next to impossible.

* the ultimate Defrag, is to do a backup of the C: partition, and then do a restore. The Restore overwrites the partition, file by file, effecting a Total Defrag. At least "Ghost" works that way, and that's the ONLY backup/restore program that I will use.

Cheers Mate,
TM