delete everything off my computer

HOW TO do a clean install of Vista: See the «To install Windows by performing a clean installation» (or the «To reinstall Windows Vista») section of http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-Vista

NOTE: If your computer didn’t come with a set of disks, there will be a hidden Recovery partition (not to be confused with System Restore) you would use to do the clean install (AKA a «destructive recovery»).

After the clean install, you will have the equivalent of a «new computer» so take care of EVERYTHING on the following page BEFORE otherwise connecting the machine to the internet or a local network (i.e., other computers) AND BEFORE connecting a flash drive, SDCard, or any other external drive to the computer:

4 steps to help protect your new computer before you go online
http://www.microsoft.com/security/pypc.aspx

Tip: After getting the computer fully-patched, download/install KB971029 manually before connecting any external drive to the computer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971029

VERY IMPORTANT!! => Any Norton or McAfee free-trial that came preinstalled on the computer when you bought it will be reinstalled (but invalid) when Windows is reinstalled. You MUST uninstall the free-trial AND download/run the appropriate removal tool BEFORE installing any updates, Windows Service Packs or IE upgrades AND BEFORE installing your new anti-virus application (e.g., Microsoft Security Essentials — free).

Norton Removal Tool
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

If you need additional assistance with the clean install, please begin a new thread in this forum: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistarepair/threads

Robear Dyer (PA Bear)

MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002

Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft

Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
Microsoft MVP (Windows Client) since October 2002

question

Windoes 10 Reset — Remove everything

I took action below to reset my laptop (windows 10 was installed in C: drive).

Remove everything -> Change settings -> Remove all files only from the drive where Windows is installed (I turned ON) -> Reset

The problem is: it formatted my D: drive.

Question 1: Why it formatted my D: drive when I turned on ‘Remove all files only from the drive where Windows is installed ‘?

Question 2: How can I recover files in my D: drive? (I didn’t backup at all)

We have not get information from you for several days.

If the reply is useful for you, please accept as answer. It will be helpful to other members who have same questions.
If you have any other confuse, please reply to us directly.

2 Answers

Resetting your PC reinstalls Windows but deletes your files, settings, and apps—except for the apps that came with your PC. You will lose your files if you have installed Windows 10 Operating System on D drive. If you haven’t installed the Operating System on D drive, then you will not lose any files in D: drive.

Thanks for your comments.
Win 10 was installed in my C: but it deleted both C: & D:.
Do you have any idea why is it so?

This sounds strange to me. Resetting completely will remove everything on drive where OS is installed. In your case it is C but you are saying D is also removed. I am not getting a single reference where such strange thing happened (if not the user himself deleted the partition inadvertently).

Yeah. I’ve installed many times and it’s the first time as well.
So I wanted to understand why.
Thank you for your comments anyways

@AinoRo-8257
Hi,
It always depends on where your system is installed.
If D: is a partition of a unique hardware, be careful. You should only format the partition/drive that your system is installed. Paying attention on the information given at the install screens and you will let your D: drive (or partition) as it is.
If you are not an experienced user, the risk of data-loss is there. You should have a backup of your data in either case.
If you don’t have a backup, I’m afraid the file cannot be restored.

Hope above information can help you.

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Thank you for your comments.
I had C: and D:, and windows 10 was installed in C:, D: was used for saving my own files (images, documents, etc).
Why it formatted both C: and D:, when I checked on ‘Remove all files only from the drive where Windows is installed’?

Hi,
This is really strange. In theory, only C drive should be formatted.
If you have a computer with multiple partitions, you are also asked whether you want to remove files only from the drive where Windows 10 is installed, or from all drives.
Since I don’t know your specific operation, if your D drive has been formatted and there is no backup, it cannot be restored.

Yeah. it’s really strange.. someone said due to the virus but I’m still not sure..
Thank you for your help anyways

How to Delete Everything on Windows 7 and Start Over [Work Fast] [Partition Magic]

By Linda | Follow | Last Updated May 21, 2020

Summary :

How to delete everything on Windows 7 and Windows 10? How to factory reset Windows 7 and Windows 10? How to completely wipe a PC? Some of you may search these problems on Google. If you also want the answers to these problems, keep reading to get them.

Quick Navigation :

Preparatory Work for Deleting Everything on Windows 7 and Windows 10

Many users ask how to delete everything on Windows 7 or Windows 10 on forums. They want to delete everything on their computers and start over. In a word, they want to make their computers like new.

They might plan to wipe a computer Windows 7 or Windows 10 if one of the following situations occurs.

1. The computer is full of trashes and becomes slow and buggy.
2. The computer is full and can’t install updates.
3. They just bought a second-computer and then various issues happen to it.
4. They decide to sell or donate their computers.
5. .

Do you also want to delete everything on your computer Windows 7 or Windows 10? If so, you can read on to know how to delete everything on your computer Windows 7 or Windows 10.

However, before you start to completely wipe a PC, you should back up important files from your computer to external storage device. As for backup software, MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended for its simplicity and convenience.

Here is the tutorial on how to back up files with MiniTool. (If there is no important file on your computer, you can skip the backup process.)

Step 1: Download MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch it to get its main interface. Then, right-click a partition and choose Copy.

Step 2: Choose a target location where the partition is copied to and click Next button.

Step 3: Adjust the size and location of the new partition and click Finish.

Step 4: Click Apply button to execute pending operations.

Then, you can delete everything on your computer without worries.

How to Completely Wipe a PC Windows 7 or Windows 10

How to delete everything on your computer Windows 7 or Windows 10? Here are three methods for you.

Method 1. Factory Reset

As we all know, unlike Windows 10, Windows 7 doesn’t have a built-in factory reset option. When you decide to reset your computer to factory state, you have to use an installation media or recovery disk.

But fortunately, for those people who ask how to delete everything on Windows 7 without CD, they can try the following method to reset their Windows 7 computers to factory state.

Here is the tutorial on how to factory reset Windows 7 without CD.

Step 1: Press Start button and choose Control Panel.

Step 2: Choose System and Security.

Step 3: Click Backup and Restore.

Step 4: Click Recover system settings or your computer.

Step 5: Click Advanced recovery methods.

Step 6: Then, you will be presented with two options: «Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer» and «Return your computer to factory condition«. Please choose the latter option.

If the computer is bought in a shop, you can use this method to restore it to the original state. If this computer is bought on secondary market, you should use the second or third method to delete everything on the computer in order to ensure computer safety.

If your computer is Windows 10, you can use the built-in reset this PC option to wipe your computer completely. Here is the tutorial on how to how to wipe a computer Windows 10:

• Press «Shift» key while you are clicking Power>Restart button so as to boot into WinRE.
• Navigate to Troubleshoot >Reset this PC. Then, you will see two options: «Keep my files» or «Remove everything«. The former will just reinstall Windows 10, while the latter will reinstall Windows 10 and delete all your personal files.

When you choose Remove everything, you will be asked whether you want to remove everything from all drives. If you want to resell your computer, clicking All drives is recommended.

Besides, if you don’t find the factory option on Windows 7 or Windows 10 computer, you should use the following methods.

Method 2. Wipe a Computer with Commands

The second method is to wipe hard drive with commands. This method works both on Windows 7 and Windows 10, and it can wipe operating system and trash files at the same time. Some people don’t like to use this method because it is more complicated.

Here is a tutorial on how to wipe a computer Windows 7 and Windows 10.

Step 1: Click here to download Windows 7 disk image files.

Step 2: Click here to download Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool-Installer-en-US.exe (a tool used for burning Windows 7 bootable disk).

Step 3: Open the exe file and follow the wizard to set up Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool.

Step 4: Launch Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool and choose ISO file. Then, click Next button.

Step 5: Select USB device to burn the ISO file on a USB flash drive or select DVD to burn the ISO file on a DVD disk.

Step 6: Select a removable disk in the drop-down list and click Begin copying.

Step 7: A pop-up window warns that the selected removable disk must be erased. Click Erase USB Device to continue if there is no important file in the removable disk. Otherwise, click Cancel and back up data in advance.

Step 8: After the Windows installation media is completed and connected to your computer, please set in the Firmware to make the computer boot from the Windows installation media.

Step 9: Then, you will enter WinPE shown like the following picture. Click Next.

Step 10: Click Repair your computer. Then, click Next and choose Command Prompt.

Step 11: Type the following commands one by one to delete all partitions on the disk.

1. If there are multiple disks, you should select them and clean them one by one.
2. When you format a partition, the file system can be FAT32 or NTFS. But, NTFS file system is recommended when the partition is larger than 32 GB.
3. You can create only one partition to install OS. Then, you can manage your disks and partitions after the OS is reinstalled.

Then, you can exit the cmd window and perform OS reinstallation process. But please note that the Windows 7 installation media can only help you install Windows 7 on your computer. If you want to delete everything on Windows 7 and install Windows 10 on your computer, you should make a Windows 10 installation media.

This method can format the computer to destroy trashes files, virus, etc. However, if you want to avoid data disclosure better after you sell or donate your computer, you can use a third-party program to wipe your computer more radically.

Method 3. Wipe a PC with a Third-Party Program

To be honest, the data can be recovered easily if you just delete or format partitions (Click to know how to recover deleted files and recover data from formatted partition). If you plan to sell or donate your computer, you should know how to completely wipe a PC. Thus, MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended. You can use it to erase your computer easily.

Here is the tutorial on how to delete everything on Windows 7 and Windows 10 with MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Step 1: Buy MiniTool Partition Wizard and setup it to get to its main interface. Then, click Bootable Media after registering your account.

Step 2: Click WinPE-based media with MiniTool plug-in. Then, choose the media destination.

1. You can choose a USB flash drive or a CD/DVD as the bootable media and the boot.iso file will be burnt to them directly.
2. If you don’t have the above tools, you can choose ISO File. Thus the boot.iso file is generated on your computer. But later, you still need to burn it to a USB flash drive by using another media creation tool.

Step 3: Similarly, set in the Firmware to make the computer boot from the bootable disk.

Step 4: Wait a few minutes and click Disk & Partition Management to get to the main interface. Then, right-click a disk and select Wipe Disk.

Step 5: Choose how to wipe a hard drive.

1. Fill sectors with Zero and Fill sectors with One: They will write the same code to the disk. Thus the overwriting process will avoid your data being recovered easily by others.
2. Fill sectors with Zero &One: It will randomly write zeros and ones to partition, which makes data more unrecoverable.
3. DoD 5220.22-M (3 passes): It is recommended if users want to get rid of the data disclosure radically.
4. DoD 5220.28-STD (7 passes): It provides higher security level for data because it has more passes than DoD 5220.22-M (3 passes).

Step 6: Click Apply button to execute the wiping operation.

Then, you could also use MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a new partition if you want to install new OS on the computer. You can refer to the following tutorial.

Step 1: Right-click on the gray Unallocated space and choose Create.

Step 2: Set parameters for the new partition. You should choose file system type cautiously, but for other parameters, you can keep their defaults. Then, click OK button.

Step 3: Click Apply button to carry out the partition creation command.

Then, you can install a new OS on your computer. You can use Windows installation media to install the operating system. Of course, you can also use MiniTool Partition Wizard to migrate OS to your computer.

In my mind, OS migration is recommended for the following two reasons.

1. It is more convenient than clean installation.
2. You only need to install a few programs after OS migration. However, after clean installation, you should install all programs that you need.

No matter what method you choose, MiniTool Partition Wizard is a tool that you deserve because it is a powerful program for managing partition. You can also use it to prevent your computer from being full of trashes.

Bottom Line

Is this article helpful to you? We need your feedback. If you are confused about the content in this article or have other related problems, please leave a comment below for discussion or email us at [email protected] for help. We will reply to you as soon as possible.

Of course, if you have any other ideas, you can also leave a comment below for sharing.

How to Delete Everything on Windows 7 FAQ

Step 1: Press Start button and choose Control Panel.

Step 2: Choose System and Security.

Step 3: Click Backup and Restore.

Step 4: Click Recover system settings or your computer.

Step 5: Click Advanced recovery methods.

Step 6: Then, you will be presented with two options: «Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer» and «Return your computer to factory condition«. Please choose the latter option.

Step 1: Factory reset the PC to delete everything on the computer.

Step 2: Use MiniTool Partition Wizard to wipe the PC completely so that the data can’t be recovered.

Step 3: Reinstall Windows.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Author Linda has been working as an editor at MiniTool for 1 year. As a fresh man in IT field, she is curious about computer knowledge and learns it crazily. Maybe due to this point, her articles are simple and easy to understand. Even people who do not understand computer can gain something.

By the way, her special focuses are data recovery, partition management, disk clone, and OS migration.