Deleting Info From Pc

[mizfiesta]

I've just bought a shiny new laptop and I'm going to sell my old pc on. I'll obviously need to clean all my stuff off it before I do this. My question is, what's the best way to do this? Ps I'm not very technical minded so it would have to be a dummy's guide :)

[tommy39]

the best way is to, do a reinstall of the operating system. if you have the instalation disk.failing that take everything of by hand exept windows

[grasscarp]

[WyeDyed]

What is the make and model of the PC? There may be a recovery partition.

[MichaelZZ]

Before you delete anything just make sure that you have copied / saved everything in the way of files, folders, photos, etc that you need from the old computer. The best way is to save all your stuff to an external hard drive. Also make sure that you have all the discs for the installed programs so that you can use these on your new computer. If the new computer has a different operating system to your old one it could be that some of your old programs won't work. In that case you'll have to get the latest version off the internet.
Having done this, I would run the new computer for a week or so and you might find there's something that you're missing. If you've still got the old one this won't be too much of a problem. If, on the other hand, you've wiped the old one clean then it will be a problem!
Assuming that you've still got the original disc for whatever version of Windows your old PC is running, the best way to clean all the old stuff off the old PC would be to do a clean reinstall of Windows. This will automatically wipe everything off your old machine and you'll just be left with a clean, good as new "old" computer. (You may be astonished at how fast it is now running - and wonder why you splashed out on a new machine!)

[hc4361]

It is usually possible to do a 'factory restore' which puts the pc back to the state it was when you bought it.
Look at your manual which is probably on the hard drive under Start - all programs - the make of the pc.

[VHG]

>>>Failing that take everything of by hand except windows

That is NOT good enough.

When a file is deleted in Windows it still stays on the hard disk (only the POINTER to it is deleted).

So a deleted file could still be on the hard disk months or years later. These files are easy to recover.

One option is to install CCleaner (which is free) and then run the option called Drive Wiper on the empty space. This will delete all files on the empty areas of the disk (it does this by writing rubbish over and over again on the empty part of the hard disk).