How to Format Windows 7 to have empty C:

[Bero]

Hello

im new on the forum, and i will ask probably only this one question.

Im selling my old laptop that has right now Win 7 on it, i will sell him with blank disks. And as i hawe ne experiance with windows 7 i dont know how to format disk C:

Please help or give me a link on forum with answer..

Sorry for dumb question, but im new and as newbie the forum is for me immense


Thank you

 

[Barman58]

try the partition wizard boot disk

Partition Wizard is a Magic Server Partition Manager Software for Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 and Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7.

You will find that win7 does not allow you to format the system drive (C)

 

[whs]

Have a look at this one: Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. It can be operated from a bootable CD. http://www.killdisk.com/bootablecd.htm

 

[Bero]

Again me

I need to wipe the drive, i read some aticles on forum

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/66901-i-want-sell-my-laptop.html

thats my situation

but answers are welcome

 

[Ztruker]

Answers were already provided. Did you read the information at the links given?

 

[Bero]

Thanks alot

 

[Brink]

Hello Bero, and welcome to Seven Forums.

In addition, you can use the Clean All command in a command prompt at boot to completely wipe the hard drive without the need for a 3rd party program.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[gregrocker]

Is there only one Hard Drive in the machine? If so you'll need to run the Diskpart CLEAN command from Win7 or Vista install DVD.

Boot the DVD, select Repair on second screen, click through to Recovery Tools list to open a Command Line, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (replace # with # given for your Win7 HD)
CLEAN ALL
EXIT

This is the deepest clean. if the disk is large it will take hours. If you don't want to wait remove the word "ALL" from Command.

Edit: The commands are explained more fully in Brink's tutorial just posted

 

[whs]

Hello Bero, and welcome to Seven Forums.

In addition, you can use the Clean All command in a command prompt at boot to completely wipe the hard drive without the need for a 3rd party program.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I wonder how this works if you apply it to C.

 

[karlsnooks]

Hello

im new on the forum, and i will ask probably only this one question.

Im selling my old laptop that has right now Win 7 on it, i will sell him with blank disks. And as i hawe ne experiance with windows 7 i dont know how to format disk C:

Please help or give me a link on forum with answer..

Sorry for dumb question, but im new and as newbie the forum is for me immense


Thank you

If you find that you can't "clean yourself" using DiskPart, then
Make yourself a system repair disk,
boot from the system repair disk
If you get a screen with two radio buttons shown, choose the default (top) one.

Now choose Command Prompt from that menu.

Now you will be able to use Diskpart to CLEAN ALL

What happens is that the repair disk has installed a mini version of Win7 into ram and made that area a ram drive with the letter of X:


CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISK
START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disk button

 

[whs]

Karl, that makes sense. Else I could not see how it would work.

 

[karlsnooks]

whs,
I ran across the not being able to clean youself problem myself.

One can also boot from a Win 7 DVD and then at that first screen use SHIFT + F10 to get to a command prompt. The Win 7 DVD has installed a Win PE so that one is operating from a ram drive.

I've never needed to but I've been told that any point after that 1st screen during an install, one can use the Shift + F10 command to drop to a command prompt.

 

[Brink]

Hello Bero, and welcome to Seven Forums.

In addition, you can use the Clean All command in a command prompt at boot to completely wipe the hard drive without the need for a 3rd party program.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I wonder how this works if you apply it to C.

If you do it from a command prompt at boot using your Windows 7 installation DVD from the Windows Recovery Options, then it will wipe the C: drive clean as well.

 

[whs]

Hello Bero, and welcome to Seven Forums.

In addition, you can use the Clean All command in a command prompt at boot to completely wipe the hard drive without the need for a 3rd party program.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I wonder how this works if you apply it to C.

If you do it from a command prompt at boot using your Windows 7 installation DVD from the Windows Recovery Options, then it will wipe the C: drive clean as well.

Thanks Shawn. Karl just gave me a tutorial on it. I had never done that before - no need yet. My PCs are still in good working order and not ready for the Salvation Army - LOL.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Wolfgang.

 

[Krispy1]

the best thing for wiping a drive clean as it can be is a boot up program called dban www.dban.org