want to get rid of all thats on my hard drive

[nancy361]

Have a new computer now, and would like to put the hard drive of the old one back to new again.....i have all i want and need, backed up already, and i may donate or sell the old tower so i dont want any of my stuff on the HD.....its a dell inspiron 531 and i dont have any disks for it.....does that HEIDI eraser still work? i dont want to get rid of vista, just make it like new again with nothing from ME on it.....i have vista home basic 32 bit

thanks
nancy

[zipulrich]

This, from Dell:

1 Turn on the computer.

2 As the computer starts, press <F8> on the keyboard until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.
Note:
You must press <F8> before the Windows logo appears on the screen. If you press <F8> after the Windows logo appears on the screen, the Advanced Boot Options menu will not appear on the screen. If you do not see the Advanced Boot Options menu, restart the computer, and then repeat this step until you see the menu on the screen.


3 Press the <Down Arrow> on the keyboard to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press <Enter>.

4 Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.

5 Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.

6 Click Dell Factory Image Restore.

7 In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.

8 Click to select the Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition check box.

9 Click Next.
The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.

10 When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.
The software is now installed as it was when the computer was first received.

[nancy361]

thanks for the info.. i shouldve looked into it more i think i recall doing that before with another old tower i had....thanks again

[zipulrich]

Welcome.

The new owner will need to do Windows updates, maybe update a driver or two, but should have a pretty clean machine. Assuming you don't have like big NSA-type secrets to hide you should be good to go.