WIping a computer clean : help - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

nickerjones · 09-07-2009, 04:36 PM

I have a compaq presario v2000 laptop that I want to erase everything off of. is there a way to restore this to factory setting without taking off the OS and reinstalling it? I only ask cause I dont have an OS install disc... LMK

flamesfan6 · 09-07-2009, 06:27 PM

do you have a recovery disk? if not i have no idea how you can do it unless you remove all programs and files manuallly (wont be perfect)

photon · 09-07-2009, 06:33 PM

You can get pretty close, most of the personal information is stored in the profile directories, if you delete the profiles and create a brand new one that'll get you pretty far. Then uninstall all the apps, and then go through all the directories and ensure that there's no personal info left.

Then use Eraser (http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/) to wipe the empty space to make sure nothing can be undeleted.

flamestalker · 09-07-2009, 07:03 PM

Haha, I read the thread title and thought.. "Don't you just use a cloth?" Some people..

nickerjones · 09-07-2009, 07:09 PM

wonder if there is any place i can find recovery discs

wooohooo · 09-07-2009, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickerjones

wonder if there is any place i can find recovery discs

You just go to HP's website and download it and burn it onto a CD. Stick it in, load it up and just click next or whatever it tells you to do.

Canuck-Hater · 09-07-2009, 08:42 PM

You will need a startup disk for this. Just format the hard drive clean and everything will be deleted depending on the type of windows install you do. Make sure cd is your first boot device, and go from there.

ken0042 · 09-07-2009, 10:06 PM

I'd also check to see if there is a system recovery partition on the hard drive. A few ways to check:

- If the C drive is quite a bit less than what it says it should have. For example if the capacity is 120 GB and it shows 110-115 available; that is normal. If it shows like 90-100 available there could be another partition with the recovery.
- Sometimes at startup it will say something like "Press F7 to launch system restore"
- You might also have a recovery program that can run right from Windows.

Other than that I would do what Photon says- just make sure you know how to log into a different Administrator account before you try to wipe out your own profile.