Ways to Wipe the Hard Drive and Leave the OS
We’re assuming that you want to end up with a PC with an operating system installed, but one where you’ve wiped all your personal data so no deleted files can be recovered. You can do this in several ways:
- Completely Wipe Your Hard Drive, then Re-install Windows: Use a tool like DBAN (short for Darik’s Boot and Nuke) to wipe your computer’s hard drive, eliminating everything — including its operating system.
You can then re-install Windows from a Windows disc or re-install your computer’s operating system from a recovery disc the manufacturer provided. Note that DBAN will wipe any recovery partitions on your computer’s hard drive, so you won’t be able to restore Windows from the recovery partition.
- Re-install Windows, then Wipe Your Data: First, use the Reset Your PC feature built into Windows 8, restore your PC from its recovery partition or disc, or re-install Windows from a Windows disc. You should then have a clean system without any personal data — be sure to check that all your personal data has been deleted, including data on separate hard drive partitions that may not be wiped by the recovery process.
Once you have a fresh Windows system, you’ll just need to wipe all the free space. You can use a tool like the Drive Wiper tool built into CCleaner to wipe only your hard drive’s free space, ensuring that no deleted files will be recoverable.
You could try to delete all your personal files and then use a Drive Wiper tool without re-installing Windows at all, but you’re better off starting with a clean operating system to ensure your data is removed. This also allows the computer’s new owner to start with a fresh operating system.
