- Erase Everything On Computer And Start Fre…
- How To Wipe Your Computer Clean Windows 10
- How To Wipe A Computer Clean To Sell Windows 10
Looking for the right steps to completely wipe hard disk in Windows 10, then this blog post is dedicated to you. Image: risolvo.it. Have you ever came across a situation when your computer’s HDD is full of malware and formatting one of the partition doesn’t help? See the tip at the bottom of the page for information on a 'simple' wipe using the format command in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista. How to Wipe a Computer Hard Drive This process could take several minutes to several hours depending on how big the drive is and what method you choose. Windows will be reset, either keeping your files intact or erasing everything, depending on the option you selected. How to install Microsoft Windows 10. Press the Windows key plus the 'C' key to open the Charms menu. Select the Search option and type reinstall in the Search text field (do not press Enter). Select the Settings option. If you received a device that hasn't been reset, you can do a clean install. If you lost your Bitlocker key, go to Find my BitLocker recovery key. To learn how to rename a device, go to Manage your devices for Microsoft Store. If your device was lost or stolen, you can locate and lock it remotely—go to Find and lock a lost Windows device.
To wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information. Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not usually wipe a hard drive. You'll need to take an extra step to wipe the hard drive so the data cannot be easily reconstructed later.
When you format a hard drive or delete a partition, you're usually only deleting the file system, making the data invisible, or no longer actively indexed, but not gone. A file recovery program or special hardware often recovers the information.
If you want to make sure that your private information is gone forever, you'll need to wipe the hard drive using special software.
See the tip at the bottom of the page for information on a 'simple' wipe using the format command in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.
How to Wipe a Computer Hard Drive
This process could take several minutes to several hours depending on how big the drive is and what method you choose.
Back up anything you want to keep, such as photos, software product keys, etc. When the hard drive wipe is complete, there will be absolutely no way to get anything on the drive back.
If you've already been using an online backup service, you can safely assume that all your important files are already backed up online. If you haven't been so proactive, pick from several free offline backup tools that can save your files to an external hard drive.
Back up everything you want to keep; sometimes several virtual drives share space on a single physical hard drive. View the drives (volumes) that sit on a hard drive from the Disk Management tool in Windows.
Download a free data destruction program. Any of the first six programs we recommend on that list will work great because they can be used to wipe a hard drive from outside of Windows, a necessary feature if you want to wipe the hard drive that Windows is installed on.
We're big fans of DBAN, our first pick on that list. It's probably the most widely used hard drive wiping tool. See our How to Wipe a Hard Drive with DBAN tutorial if you're nervous about hard drive wiping or prefer a more detailed walkthrough.
DBAN does not wipe-solid state drives. If you need to erase an SSD, you'll have to find a different program in that list mentioned above.
Wiping a hard drive is operating system independent if you use one of the bootable tools from our list.
There are actually several ways to completely erase a hard drive, but using data destruction software is the easiest and still allows the hard drive to be used again.
Next, complete whatever steps are necessary to install the software or, in the case of a bootable program like DBAN, get the ISO image on a CD or DVD disc, or a USB device like a flash drive:
If you're using a CD or DVD, this process usually involves burning the ISO image to a disc and then booting from the disc to run the program.
If you're using a flash drive or other USB drive, this process usually involves burning the ISO image to the USB device and then booting from that USB drive to get started.
Wipe the hard drive according to the program's instructions.
Mostwiped.'
Is Shredding Files What You're Really After?
If what you really want to do is just make sure that files you delete on a regular basis are really gone and not retrievable with special tools, a data wiping program is more than you need. See our list of free file shredder software programs for programs that 'destroy' individual files on an as-needed basis.
Many of those shredder programs also do what's called a free space wipe, which is a wipe of all the 'empty' space on your hard drive. The purpose for this is to ensure that the files you've already deleted are actually deleted for good.
Still confused? See Wipe vs Shred vs Delete vs Erase: What's the Difference?
Summary
If you have been running Windows 10 for a while and you would like perform clean or you plan to recycle a PC (giveaway to a friend, charity or resell), you should use the Reset this PC function. Previously we looked at using the Recovery Drive function which provides the same functions but it is intended more for situations where your PC might not be functioning or if you want to reinstall Windows 10 on a new hard disk. If your Windows 10 PC is working just fine, the Reset this PC function is all that you need in most cases. In this article we take a look at using it to perform a clean install.
Details
Note: No product key is required when using the Recovery Drive to reinstall Windows 10. Once the recovery drive is created on a computer that is already activated, everything should be ok.
To find out your Activation Status: Click Start > Settings > Update & security > Activation
Click Start > Settings (or press Windows key + i) > click Update & security
Click Recovery then click Get Started under Reset this PC
Since we are performing a clean install, I will be selecting the option Remove everything, if you don't want to do that, you can click Keep my files
Reset offers two types of clean installs:
Erase Everything On Computer And Start Fre…
Just remove my files - this option is quicker and recommended if you just want a fresh start and you plan to keep the computer.
Remove files and clean the drive - if you plan to giveaway or resell your computer, this option ensures the computer is cleaned properly. Its takes a bit longer, but it is recommended if you plan to no longer use this computer.
Since I will be using this computer, I will choose the first option.
Click Reset to begin
Windows 10 will restart
Preparing to perform a reset
Resetting - this might take some time depending on the amount of data
Windows will check the drive for errors and fix them.
Tears to tiara episode. Windows 10 performs a clean install again
Out of Box Experience (OOBE)
The Out of Box Experience assist with personlizing your Windows experience such as creating a user account, connect to a wireless network and adjust privacy settings.
Windows 10 Pro x64 Redstone 5 Multi-Language-24 ISO Download Latest OEM RTM version. It is Full Bootable ISO Image of Windows 10 Pro x64. Windows 10 Pro x64 Redstone 5 Multi-Language-24 ISO Overview Microsoft has launched Windows OS more than 30 years ago and since then it is being used by majority of the people. Jul 05, 2018 Download and install Windows 10 Redstone 5 preview builds. Note: This is a friendly reminder that Windows 10 Redstone 5 builds are buggy. If you fancy testing out a future version of Windows 10, Microsoft has now made it possible to perform a fresh install of Windows 10 Redstone 5 by officially releasing the ISO files for the. Windows redstone 5 download. On this page, we have collated all the changes and new features brought by all Windows 10 Redstone 5 (Version 1809) insider builds so far.We will keep this page updated with new changes/features brought by newer preview builds. Jul 31, 2018 Earlier this month, Microsoft confirmed that it is almost at the end of the development of Windows 10 Redstone 5 – the upcoming version of the desktop operating system slated for an October.
Choose your country, language, keyboard layout and time zone then click Next
Read and accept the End User License Agreement
If you want to customize your privacy settings, you can do so now. Please note, you can always do this after setup (Start > Settings > Privacy). For now, lets use Use Express settings
Wait while Windows 10 restarts
Don't be alarmed, this is just temporary
Setup your username, password and a hint then click Next
This too shall pass
There you have it, a clean installation of Windows
How To Wipe Your Computer Clean Windows 10
Related:
How To Wipe A Computer Clean To Sell Windows 10
- How to: upgrade from previous versions of Windows using Windows 10 ISO file
- How to: Perform a custom installation of Windows
- How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10
- How to: Switch from 32 bit versions of Windows to Windows 10 64 bit