How do a prep a computer for a return to a vendor?

It came pre-loaded with Windows 7-64 bit.

I put a couple games on it which I was thinking of just deleting, but there's a few programs and browsers I was thinking I'd like to remove completely, probably about 5gb, maybe a lot less.

It is an 80gb sata drive about filled up to 30gb including windows.

What I was thinking was to use something like 'Blank and Secure' for the stuff I'm really concerned about. Not sure about the rest. I did use the IE it came with though. CCleaner for the rest? Not sure of the right order to do this.

It's Tigerdirect and they didn't tell me much other than maybe get it back to it's original shipping state by (possibly) using some bios setting. I'm not familiar with that at all.

Any advise? It did come with Win7 OS discs, but I'd rather not mess with those unless I had to.

Thanks

Brian

The win7 was keyed in but I don't think it was activated with MS yet. Would that make a difference? Am I over-worrying about this?

 

If it's a pre built often you'll have the option to return to factory state using the recovery partition, in control panel computer next to your C: drive will be a recovery partition, if there isn't one then you probably don't have one.

To return the computer back to factory default you have to press certain keys as the computer is booting, in a HP for example you use HP recovery manager you tap F11 as the computer is booting, you'll have to consult your documentation though, usually as the computer is loading windows you will be presented with a message saying hit F11 to enter recovery or similar.

If you just want to delete specific files so they're unreadable you'll have to manually find and delete the files or using a utility such as ccleaner then use a secure delete program that writes over the free space, or one that combines the two such as eraser,I'm sure people have other suggestions.

http://majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Standard_d5125.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Eraser_d4221.html

 

Thank goodness for the Spacemonger program. Since the Win7 directory structure is new to me, I had a real problem seeing what was loaded where.

Spacemonger shows you a graphic of all folders and files on your hard drive. Not sure if it's available here but it should be.

 

Spacemonger 1.4.0 in this case.

Seems that the newer version is trialware and not shareware.