Formatting A Computer To Give Away

goodwill stores wont sell a computer unless they throw away hard drive so peoples info wont be out there for strangers

so what wrong with just creating a new user on computer as administrator and deleting the other user accounts?

wouldn't that erase all that info?

and if i want to get rid of a computer too for someone

 

No.
When a file is deleted, Windows marks the space taken by the file as available. Commercial and free software can retrieve that file. It depends on the quality of the software and how many times the space has been used.

To completely remove a file, it needs to be 'wiped' i.e. overwritten with random 1s & 0s.

 

As Eldon said- a hard drive needs to be wiped - there is plenty of software round to do it.
I would note any coa's and have discs to re-install Windows (whichever version) and re-install after cleaning, to make it a worthwhile seller.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/...?q=wie%20hard%20drive&ref=&ss=7587j3823027j17
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/image/20608.html
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ultrawipe.html

 

Not to distract from your main question but the opening sentence left me wondering.

I have seen some Goodwill stores that had skeleton systems, i.e. hard drives, dvd, sometimes memory missing. But in this area we do have Goodwill Stores with full Computer Service and Sales. The comp sale floor can have quite a selection of pc's ready to go at very reasonable price.I have bought full systems for 99 to 149$. Win 7 PRO and Ultimate up to Windows 10-1809. I'm sure by now 1909.

Also loads of miscellaneous hardware, cables, screen cleaning supplies and others.
I picked up a 1tb internal and a 500g external drive on some of my visits.

Don't bypass Goodwill. Stop in and -browse- for a while!

 

if i do a factory reset of a tablet kindle will that erase everything?

 

https://security.stackexchange.com/...ta-over-a-hard-drive-multiple-times-better-th i dont do any banking online so i dont much care

maybe its best to always divide a drive in two and then erase one while using the other like do the ones and zeros at night when you arent using it

 

https://superuser.com/questions/174883/why-erase-file-with-random-patterns-instead-of-all-0s-or-1s

 

This is why some virus's remain on system even after a full wipe.Stuff can still be recovered as stated above.It's best to keep the hard drive for a later use.Like extra space.

FYI hard drive can become costly.

 

>>no one answered the question and I would like to know the answer. I always thought a factory reset would clean the hard drive whether HDD or SSD.
The reason I would like to know is so I can do this properly when giving my machine away.

 

I did not notice the Kindle I am using a regular computer with windows 10 and wanted to know if formatting that would be enough to sell it or give it away with no data on it

 

See post #2.

 

Well I’m glad I bumped into this thread because I was of the impression that a clean installation of the operating system would be sufficient to clear all previous data. According to the thread I need another tool to replace all spaces with binaries, ones and zeros .
I have read so many times that a reset a reinstallation would suffice so thanks for the new information. I have never bumped into the situation because I always keep my old hard drives.

 

peterr, and JonahWales
Please note that I have personally used a simple free software tool-Partition Wizard,- to go back at least 3 full formats, and get a laptop back to factory settings. !(I did this when testing hard drives-I got lucky as , if you choose the wrong partition to delete , when doing it, then you can miss the chance)
Sounds impossible, but it can be that simple, unless you smash a hard drive completely,so that it cannot be used at all.......Then it is possible to get data off of it-all formatting does is cut the direct link to it -Linux distros can read a lot, too, after a windows format - So, if you want to be certain, government type wipe-or zeros and 0ne's, as Eldon explained in post #2 is the only other secure way.

 

I thank you both for your information I will do as instructed.