Filed under: Clean Up Computer
How do I clean up my laptop's hard drive so that I can resell it?
May 21, 2011
6 thoughts on “How do I clean up my laptop's hard drive so that I can resell it?”
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Clean Registry and Optimize PC
before reselling it you should format it. erasing it at high security settings, no just the min of government. Because me and my team picked up a bunch of them that said they were formatted that way, and we still got some cool files from it…Showed the agency would sold them to us, and taught them how to do it right.
So once again, Erase it…Highest level…don’t mind it being slower, it’s only a few minutes anyhow even for many gigs. Then, for the best, cleanest, and safest way to resell a laptop… repartion it. then format it in NTFS. then install the system using the defaults from the system restore disks that came with your laptop. That will bring you back to the factory defaults. Don’t register it after that. and don’t configure any users. For you stated you intend to sell it. That will leave the laptop at the best setting for the new buyer of your used laptop to setup and configure the system to there personal preference. Make note of it when you sell it. inform the buyer that it is at factory defaults. Buyers like it that way. System restore does just that, it restores the system files, not the intire drive like ghosting a drive does.
If it’s XP you can just go to start, control panel, user accounts.. create a new user name of the person you are selling to and delete all other users. Each user you delete asks do you want to keep their files, say no and each users [my documents] will be deleted. That is the absolute quickest, readers digest version of getting rid of info
no, not system restore, it just takes it back to the last time it made a rest point. You have to do a comple restore with the cd or the recovery partition. Check your laptop software, somewhere there is a system recovery option, it will take it back to new condition, that is what to do.
remember, the key word is "SYSTEM RECOVERY" not restore, defagmenting, deleting, none of that stuff is going to clear your presence away. If you need help, IM me or email me
Take off all of the software, documents and anything else that you have added during your period of laptop ownership, then run disk clean-up and anyhing that asks you to delete, get it deleted. The only thing I wouldn;t do is remove the operating system from the laptop (windows or MAC OSX).
No system restore will not do that. It is meant for roll back system (windows) files only. Instead of this format all your logical disks and then reinstall a fresh copy of windows.
Yes, system restore will reformat the hard drive to it’s original setting. It will remove all files and programs you have added too. Or you could just delete all your files and programs you don’t want to give away then do a disk defragment.
To defrag the HD, go to START, ALL PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, DISK DEFRAGMENTER. But you should have first removed all your personal files. If you’ve done that then go ahead and defrag the computer. It basically accomplishes the same thing by overwriting your removed files. That way no one can recover your files. It’s safe and maybe easier than doing a system restore. SR will require you to sit there and answer some questions as it goes through the process. And you will need the key code. Too often people loose the key code and then get stuck with an unusable machine. That’s why I suggest removing your files then defragging your system.
T Bhargava; I’ve always lost everything on the disk when doing system restore. It may be that some restore disks do not completely reformat the HD, but generally I believe it does.
tfoster14uk is kind of on the right track, but disk cleanup only removes temporary files and cookies and the like. It won’t remove files you created and it won’t overwrite the spaces left by your deleted files.
WARNING: Deleted files can be recovered if they are NOT OVERWRITTEN. I strongly recommend my method over anything I’ve seen anyone else write.