*~CantaLaCookie~* asked in Q&A:
I have a pc laptop, windows XP
I have a pc laptop, windows XP
i bought a new laptop, and this one is going to my little brother.
i want to erase all of my files so he has a clean computer
my computer had crashed in august (stupid windows update..) and after trying a PC recovery, the system was basically cleaned and i could still use the same microsoft office disc and security program.
how can i do it so the same thing happens again – not crash, hopefully, but so it can be cleaned again.
i’m not reselling it and if we do then i’ll worry about washing the disc, it’s just supposed to be my brother’s laptop so i want it to be as cleaned out as possible
Well, it sounds like you want the laptop to be exactly as it was when it was brand new. In this case, you should have recovery disks OR a recovery partition.
Restart your computer and boot from the recovery partition/disks, and reinstall the OS.
Note: all your files will be deleted and all of your settings will be reset.
This is basically a clean sweep and a full reset.
you can reinstall your copy of windows xp or format your hard drive without backing up your data. or you could have a professional perform a disk wipe, which would be the most secure option.