[Inuyasa]

I just bought a new PC which will be coming tomorrow. Im giving my old computer to a friend and i want to clear basically everything off my HD except the OS. Is there a free program or a program i can torrent to do this? Or do i need to scavenge for my vista installer and format it?

[Brayker]

BACKUP YOUR FILES FIRST! anything you want to save from your old computer put on an external harddrive or another computer before reformatting.

when you turn on your computer there should be a selection of "F" key options on the brand name screen (HP for me). Hit the 'boot menu' key (F8, I think, yours might be different) and it'll ask if you want to recover your system to factory settings, hit yes and away you go. It'll be just like new.

[Inuyasa]

Brayker, on 25 July 2010 - 01:47 PM, said:

BACKUP YOUR FILES FIRST! anything you want to save from your old computer put on an external harddrive or another computer before reformatting.

when you turn on your computer there should be a selection of "F" key options on the brand name screen (HP for me). Hit the 'boot menu' key (F8, I think, yours might be different) and it'll ask if you want to recover your system to factory settings, hit yes and away you go. It'll be just like new.

i threw my passwords document and my important crap on my 8gig flash. Does that F thing work with vista? because i dont recall being able to format like that

[Littlebender]

If that doesn't work you can always delete System32.

[Inuyasa]

Littlebender, on 25 July 2010 - 05:16 PM, said:

If that doesn't work you can always delete System32.

No.... no thanks...

[treelo]

Go to the website of your HDD manufacturer (I'm genuinely drunk if that isn't a word [googled it, not THAT drunk, just drunk enough to type this rather than just use italics]) They usually provide a program that will "write to zero" which completely wipes the HDD. It's virtually impossible to leave just a clean OS on the system, your time would be bettwer spent finding an illegitimate copy of the OS you used on that PC. But if anyone asks, I didn't tell you that.

This post has been edited by treelo: 25 July 2010 - 05:41 PM

[Inuyasa]

ahhh dam.... oh well i got the OS. ill just spend an hour or 3 formating it....