Wiped Clean Hard Drive

[hlewton]

I have a couple Windows 10 desktop computers that I'd like to donate to a local charity. I want to securely wipe the drives clean and don't care if they don't even have an operating system installed. Right now they are just sitting in my basement. What can I use to securely destroy any data on these computers? Will this work - Reset this PC from within Windows 10?

[stuck]

Try DBAN:
    https://dban.org/
It's just about as 'nuclear option' as it gets.

Ken

[hlewton]

I have tried to make sense of what I have found in the NET about doing this. I don't believe Reset PC does all I need but I think there is another option it offers that may do the trick,"Fully Clean The Drive." I believe using Reset PC and the option I just mentioned may do what I want but I think this Reset PC requires it to reinstall Windows 10. If I'm correct do I need to hook these computers up to the Internet to reinstall Windows 10 since I do not have a Windows 10 disk? I can run Belarc Advisor to get the installation key for each computer but just not sure what I need to do if attaching to the Internet is not enough.

[hlewton]

Try DBAN:
    https://dban.org/
It's just about as 'nuclear option' as it gets.

Ken

Thank you. I didn't see this before my last post. I certainly will look into it now.

[hlewton]

Try DBAN:
    https://dban.org/
It's just about as 'nuclear option' as it gets.

Ken

Sorry but I have to ask a question about this program. I downloaded it put it on an USB stick but I noticed it is an iso file. Not sure but do I just place it on the computer I want to clean and double click it to make it run? Sorry, I am not familiar with an iso file and how it works.

[stuck]

An iso file is a disc image, you need to burn it to either a USB stick:
    https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-burn-an ... ve-2619270
or to a DVD:
    https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-burn-an ... vd-2626156

Once you have your USB stick / DVD you need to access the BIOS of the PC you want to nuke and set it to boot the PC from USB / DVD, not from its hard drive. Having done that and with the USB stick in a port or the DVD in the drive, when you power up the PC the USB stick / DVD will boot the PC and DBAN will launch.

Ken

[stuck]

A less destructive option would be to reset the PC back to its factory defaults using the 'reset this PC' option and ensuring you choose the option that equates to 'don't keep my data'.

Having done that, install and open Ccleaner. In Ccleaner there is an option to use 'secure deletion'. Set that to at least 'Complex overwrite (7 passes) and then tick the two other options to 'wipe alternate data streams' and 'wipe cluster tips'. Next tick the 'wipe free space drives' option for all the drives. Lastly actually do the cleaning.

It will take a while, possible many hours but the end result should be a PC that stilk has an OS on it, so will be usable be it's new owner, but should eb free of any of your personal data.

Stuart may have better advice.

Ken

[hlewton]

A less destructive option would be to reset the PC back to its factory defaults using the 'reset this PC' option and ensuring you choose the option that equates to 'don't keep my data'.

Having done that, install and open Ccleaner. In Ccleaner there is an option to use 'secure deletion'. Set that to at least 'Complex overwrite (7 passes) and then tick the two other options to 'wipe alternate data streams' and 'wipe cluster tips'. Next tick the 'wipe free space drives' option for all the drives. Lastly actually do the cleaning.

It will take a while, possible many hours but the end result should be a PC that stilk has an OS on it, so will be usable be it's new owner, but should eb free of any of your personal data.

Stuart may have better advice.

Ken

Thank you for both answers. I was looking into this suggestion but I thought Reset PC would want to reinstall the OS. Am I wrong about that? Here is why I say that, "Resetting reinstalls Windows 10, but lets you choose whether to keep your files or remove them, and then reinstalls Windows. You can reset your PC from Settings, the sign-in screen, or by using a recovery drive or installation media." If that is the case, do I need the computer to be attached to the Internet or does it somehow reinstall the OS by other means?

I need to ask another thing. If I get these PCs reset, can I remove my name from being connected to the license key? If so, what do I need to do?

[StuartR]

I would use a bootable USB or dvd (like DBAN) to completely wipe the disk. If you leave the operating system, it will include some information

[hlewton]

I would use a bootable USB or dvd (like DBAN) to completely wipe the disk. If you leave the operating system, it will include some information

Thanks but guess what. Things did not go as planned, which comes as no surprise to me. I was mistaken about one of the computers, it was an XP. It had a video connection that was one of the older connectors where it was a rectangle tapered on one side with 3 rows of pins. I still had the connectors, one with a filter or whatever it is called, in between the connectors and one with out that filter. Both showed the XP boot up screen and then went blank on the monitor. I rebooted it and managed to get into the BIOS and made sure the USB was enabled but forgot to tell it to boot to the USB first. Not sure that would have made a difference since after booting up the screen always became blank.

Hate to say it but the local charity missed out on a computer since I completely destroyed the hard drive. Maybe I'll have better luck on the one I have left that is a Windows 10 machine. Not going to tackle it any time soon though.

[BobH]

Consider Bleach Bit.

[hlewton]

Consider Bleach Bit.

Thank you. I'll look into that too.

[hlewton]

Consider Bleach Bit.

I watched a few videos about this program. Seems pretty powerful and it also puts the responsibility of which files/folders/programs to delete on the person running it. The videos compared it to Ccleaner.For the machines I am using, I think I feel safer using that program. Still Bleachbit seems like a very useful program to have handy when needed. Thanks.

[hlewton]

It looks like the computer that was running Windows 10 has been reset and is now running Ccleaner to wipe the drive. It reloaded Windows 10 from the computer itself so the hard drive, I imagine, is still NTFS. I have a 3 1/2" floppy disk drive in this computer and found a place I can order MS DOS 6.22 on that size disk. I was thinking I may want to try loading that version of DOS on it just for fun and to look at some of the old Lotus 123 programs I still have somewhere. Believe this or not, I used to be pretty good at programming Lotus 123 macros. For some reason they came easier to me than Microsoft's visual basic, but that was at least 25 to 30 years ago.

I assume this computer is capable of running DOS if it is loaded correctly. I can't remember all the steps that are connected to installing DOS. But I think if I told it in the BIOS to boot to the 3 1/2" disk drive before the C: Drive I could make the DOS installation disk format the C: drive in order to install and run DOS? Is that how it would work?

I may not do this but it may be fun if I got it up and running DOS.