[daveeade]

Hi not sure if i'm in the right place. A friend of mine has asked me if it's posible to 'wipe' a desktop PC hardisc - i.e. remove all programs and the O/S.

Is there a command in windows that will do this, or would I need a piece of software to do it.

Is it something from the 'set-up' menu before loading that I can do this.

Thanks

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It depends on the OS

For XP, set the PC to boot from the CD ROM Drive, insert the XP CD and reboot the PC, look for press any key to load from CD and it will load the set up files, then press esc to install without repairing

If you downloaded SP2 then you will need to use add / remove to uninstall that first to avoid the installed OS is newer than the version to be installed message

[Retired Tech]

It depends on the OS

For XP, set the PC to boot from the CD ROM Drive, insert the XP CD and reboot the PC, look for press any key to load from CD and it will load the set up files, then press esc to install without repairing

If you downloaded SP2 then you will need to use add / remove to uninstall that first to avoid the installed OS is newer than the version to be installed message

[daveeade]

Thanks Keith.

What I want to do is leave the machine 'blank', won't what your suggesting re-install the o/s [ I think it is XP by the way ].

[Retired Tech]

Run set up until it formats the drive, (yellow bar) then it will restart, as soon as it starts to reboot, remove the XP CD

OR

Use boot and nuke which will clear any drive, comprehensively and it does not matter which OS is on there

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Q: How do I make a bootable CD with the ISO file?

A: Download the ISO file to your desktop and double-click it.

If nothing happens when you double-click the ISO file, then you must obtain CD burning software, like one of these products:

CDBurnerXP (Gratis)
VSO Blindwrite (Shareware)
Nero Burning ROM (Shareware)
Roxio Easy Writer (Commercial)
If you burn DBAN to CD-R and see just one file when you open the CD-R afterwards, then you have burned DBAN incorrectly.

Use the cdrecord command if you have a Linux computer.

DBAN may not boot if you modify the ISO file or filesystem layout in any way, like by injecting files.

You may run in to a problem when trying to use this XP CD on another PC

It would be worth asking Microsoft first and possibly adjusting the selling price according to their response, if it is XP then that's the best proven OS available at the moment anyway, so the buyer is likely to be interested in having that as well