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Wiping a Computer Clean

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Quick question,

I just recently built my own computer and so I want to get rid of my old HP Pavilion. I want to wipe the computer clean before I do, but I don't know how. I would normally do a factory reset to clear everything out, but the problem is that since my computer came loaded with Vista and I upgraded to Windows 7 with an upgrade disk, I no longer have a built in factory reset function.

How would I go about "resetting" the computer without manually deleting all non-essential files?

P.S This might not be the right place to post this question but I couldn't find a general help forum section.

Thanks,
David

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Best solution

Prior to upgrading to Windows 7 on the HP did you make the restore discs? Even after upgrading to Win 7 you may still have a hidden restore partition. There may be a key that can be pressed while booting to run the restore program independent from and before the operating system loads. Check HP's support site for your model. I would also suggest wiping all the free space on the hard drive prior to transferring ownership. Ccleaner is one of the many free programs to wipe free hard drive space.

What do you mean when you say you're going to get rid of it? If you mean that you're going to recycle it, then just take the hard drive out and use it in a new computer or put it in an external hard drive enclosure. Then format the disk for the new system, which will wipe the data. At that point it can still be recovered, but it'll show as empty in the system and you can write over it with no worries.
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