Formatting a PC without re installing XP [SOLVED]

SharpyVII

Hello,

My friend has just asked me to format her PC so that it can be sold. I know how to format a computer using the xp disk and then re installing XP, but is it possible, using the XP disk, to format the PC and not install XP?

Do I just get to the stage in the format where I've deleted everything and then call it quits or will that bugger everything up?

Thanks in advance!

TeaSpoon

Instead of just formatting the hard-drive, I think your friend wants you to secure erase it. Put Ultimate Boot CD on a small usb drive and run DBAN for a few hours. That'll get rid of everything permanently.

SharpyVII

Thanks for the reply, if whoever she sold it has their own version of windows is it necessary to have the Ultimate Boot CD? Would they just be able to use their own CD to start from scratch after having run DBAN on it?

TeaSpoon

DBAN leaves the hard drive entirely clean of any information whatsoever. The next owner will need to reinstall windows, for which UBCD is not required.

SharpyVII

Excellent, thanks very much for you help!

Trentus

Don't go too overboard with securely erasing the disk. It'd be a waste of time to do a zillion passes with random data. One pass with zeros would suffice.