I need to wipe my hard drive on my laptop with Win7

[Christine]

Hi,

I am not tech savvy. Today I have been trying to figure out how to wipe my hard drive on my old laptop that I would like to sell. Is there a tutorial or program that you'd recommend for doing a hard drive wipe? I've found some information online, but some of it I don't understand since I'm not a tech expert. Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Christine

 

[Layback Bear]

Welcome to our forum Christine.

Here is a tutorial by our member Kari which I recommend.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197255-windows-7-installation-prepare-pc-sold.html

 

[Christine]

Thank you Layback Bear!

 

[TechnoMage2016]

Christine! By wiping your hard drive, you've just turned your laptop into a Doorstop or Paper weight.
Because in addition to deleting the OS, you're also deleting the Hardware drivers, that may be hard or almost impossible to find again. I wouldn't give you ten cents for a totally wiped laptop.
It ceases to be a workable computer and becomes a box of spare parts.

A non-destructive way to make it like new and totally re-sellable, is to just create a new user, with Admin privileges and then log into it with that new users credentials, (leave out the password,if you're going to sell the PC) and then Delete the old user. That will delete all the old user's personal files.

Then you could also go into "Program Files" and UN-Install any old software that you don't want to share with a new owner.

I've had to do all this, with computers given to me by my customers, more times than I can relate.
I wind up with a computer that's totally re-sell-able. All of the old owners info has been removed. Then I do a massive Cleanup on the HD, followed by a Defrag. That takes the PC back to 'like-new' condition.

Good Luck!

TM

 

[Christine]

Thank you for your input, TechnoMage2016.

 

[Mellon Head]

Christine,

If you follow the tutorial mentioned by Layback Bear, (which, by the way, is the best way to preserve your privacy and the security of your data), simply go to your laptop manufacturer's webpage and download the relevant drivers for your laptop and put them on a USB stick. Then, when you're reinstalling Windows, as per the tutorial, just install the drivers from the USB stick while in "Audit" mode.

If you have trouble locating drivers, we can certainly try to help. Ask as many questions as you need to.

 

[BisVal]

The best way is clean install after disk wiping. There is no such thing as cleanup , defrag or uninstalling . It always leaves registry traces .

 

[genetics73]

Christine! By wiping your hard drive, you've just turned your laptop into a Doorstop or Paper weight.

That is not really true: you can install a Linux distro on bare metal; granted, it's not Windows, but the machine is not ruined by having the disk wiped clean. And the buyer, if so inclined, can certainly get a fresh copy of Windows.

As to the process of wiping the drive, you can use WipeDrive, from White Canyon - WipeDrive - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com