How do i restore my computer to factory settings?

dude807

Distinguished
Jun 19, 2013
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I want to give my computer to a friend but i dont want him to be able to access all my files, nor do i want to go through and delete them all. So how would i restore my hp computer to when i first bought it? Wipe all the data except for the operating system.
 
Solution
Even setting to factory settings doesn't wipe out your data completely, it will be formatted, but until it's written over it's still readable and recoverable with something like Recuva. Depending on how much you don't want him to be able to get at anything, you may need to do a bit for bit erase which will physically change all the data to zero's.

Jaxem

Honorable
Even setting to factory settings doesn't wipe out your data completely, it will be formatted, but until it's written over it's still readable and recoverable with something like Recuva. Depending on how much you don't want him to be able to get at anything, you may need to do a bit for bit erase which will physically change all the data to zero's.
 
Solution