[Freshkidpee]

Hey users of the geeks to go forum im a kind of a noob in some parts of computers and am having trouble wiping my dell inspiron 1520 with windows 2000 i believe i have tried what they said on there website but they only allow support for models of 2009 and up i believe i got my computer in 2007 or 2008 and have no disks any tips on to about doing so thanks for the help in advance

[Advertisements]

Hi and welcome to GeekstoGo

What exactly is it you want to achieve evntually.

Are you simply trying to wipe the hard drive to, sell/give to someone, the computer
OR is your intention to install another operating system and if so what.

[Macboatmaster]

Hi and welcome to GeekstoGo

What exactly is it you want to achieve evntually.

Are you simply trying to wipe the hard drive to, sell/give to someone, the computer
OR is your intention to install another operating system and if so what.

[Freshkidpee]

i am planning on selling it or getting rid of it and yes i just want to clear it off all programs ,pictures,videos everything but the os and programs that come installed on the computer

[123Runner]

With a computer that old there will not be a recovery partition that would allow you to go back to day 1 when you got it. You also indicated you have no disks.
The process will be painful (but can be done). You would have to go into every area of the computer and delete your personal items.
Uninstall all programs you can.
Go to IE and delete out favorites.
Clear all temp files and caches.

[Freshkidpee]

well i have done that but there is system restore points that they can go back to so i was hoping for either a clear out everything or getting rid of the system restore aka back up points sorry i should have been more clear

[Macboatmaster]

Well the safe way of ensuring as far as possible that no normal home computer user is going to access any of your data, would be to format the drive, wrie zeros to it and make a clean install of the Operating system.

Of course you cannot do that, unless you have the means to reinstall the Operating system.

Dell PC Restore
Using PC Restore:

• Turn on the computer.

During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.

• Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.

If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.

NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot.

• Click Restore and click Confirm.

The restore process takes approximately 6 to 10 minutes to complete.

• When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.

NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.

• When prompted, click Yes.

The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the screens that appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that appeared the first time the computer was turned on.

• <a name="wp1077741">
• Click Next.

The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.

After the computer restarts, click OK.

I do not know if that Dell came with this.
It is worth a try.

Other than that and agaIN DEPENDING ON WHO YOU ARE GOING TO SELL IT TO - ALTHOUGH LOOKING AT THE SPEC ITS VALUE IS VERY LITTLE, simply uninstall what ever you wish and delete whatever cannot be uinstalled ie: your personal data - photographs docs etc.
It is NOT secure as many programs will recover it - but for the average home user and unless you have sensitive personal data it will I am sure suffice.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 02 April 2011 - 06:45 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

To delete the system restore points you ximply go Dsik Cleanup - other options and that procedure will delete all except the most recent restore point.
DO THAT when you have just established a new one.

[Freshkidpee]

it didnt work when i tried earlier but since you gave me a detailed process ill try it again and the thing is i know the average guy wont be able to get them back but my dad is a huge geek and i keep lots of stuff that he wouldnt be to proud of on this comp so i want to make sure and double check that he can not get acess to them and haha im aware the computer is pretty bad

[Macboatmaster]

but my dad is a huge geek and i keep lots of stuff that he wouldnt be to proud of on this comp

Well I thought you were going to sell or give it away so where your dad comes into it I will leave to you.
I just do not need to know.

However as I already said the data is NOT safe from recovery with any normal uninstall, delete or even format.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 02 April 2011 - 06:52 PM.

[Freshkidpee]

sorry to spam you but the computer says cannot restore so im going to just delete the restore points thanks for all your help i appreciate it

[Freshkidpee]

and are you stating that if i delete the restore points and make a new one that he can somehow still get it back

[Macboatmaster]

The restore points - restore from RESTORE folders on the hard drive.

When you do as I said you empty those folders except for the one you have just created.
YES the data can be recovered - not easily and not by the normal user but YES it is still there.

[Freshkidpee]

where can i find this folder or files to delete im a huge noob my apologies

[123Runner]

Once you delete all the restore points and then create a new one you will only be able to go back to that point and no further.
I probably would not even create a restore point because the system will do that on its own.

If you turn off system restore and then turn it back on, all the restore points will be gone.

And Macboatmaster is correct that the data can be recovered if someone wants to spend lots of time and money.

[Freshkidpee]

thanks for all your help both of you it means a lot and btw if you couldnt tell im a little computer ignorant