Easiest/ Best way to format a windows 8 laptop

EdwardTeach · 17 Sep 2014 at 14:26

The casing surrounding my mums viao laptop screen is coming apart, so it is being collected on Thursday for a warranty repair.
I am planning to take a copy of all her important documents today. I think I might also need to totally format the laptop. My mum is a doctor and also does medical expert legal work, so a lot of the documents on her computer are confidential.
I obviously could simply copy and delete all the relevant files, however I don't think this will be sufficient as she has been using skydrive/onedrive to back up her work, and because of windows 8's integrated account system, anyone turning on her computer would be able to access her onedrive folder (which would probably start to repopulate itself when the computer has an internet connection).
Is there an easy way of going about this, or would it be best for me to simply do a fresh install of windows?

Glaucus · 17 Sep 2014 at 14:31

Charms bar > settings > change pc settings > update and recover > recovery > remove everything & reinstall.

That'll remove everything and give you a fresh install.

KIA · 17 Sep 2014 at 14:47

You'll have to zero the drive if you want to get rid of sensitive data. A reinstall won't suffice.

http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-boot-dban-off-usb-drive-to-wipe-out-the-hard-drive/ or connect the laptop drive to a different machine and do a full format.

EdwardTeach · 17 Sep 2014 at 14:54

KIA said:
You'll have to zero the drive if you want to get rid of sensitive data. A reinstall won't suffice.

http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-boot-dban-off-usb-drive-to-wipe-out-the-hard-drive/ or connect the laptop drive to a different machine and do a full format.

Its only being sent off for repair, so i think that is probably unnecessary, perhaps more worthwhile if we were selling the laptop.

KIA · 17 Sep 2014 at 15:20

It's necessary if there's other peoples confidential information on the laptop. Use Bitlocker full disk encryption (Windows 8 Pro & Enterprise) if you're too lazy to format.

CaptainCrash · 17 Sep 2014 at 16:01

EdwardTeach said:
I am planning to take a copy of all her important documents today. I think I might also need to totally format the laptop. My mum is a doctor and also does medical expert legal work, so a lot of the documents on her computer are confidential.

I'd say you should absolutely, definitely secure erase the drive before letting anyone else near it.

If it's confidential legal/medical documents, I'd have thought your mum has a professional duty of care not to let it be accessed by unauthorised third parties (that includes you BTW). She should in any case be using full-disk encryption, in case the laptop is lost or stolen, and SkyDrive/OneDrive (or any cloud storage) is also a bad idea unless she's using client-side encryption such as Viivo or BoxCryptor.

Nanobot · 17 Sep 2014 at 16:29

Or if you have a spare 2.5" laptop HDD lying around and it doesn't void warranty - you could always change the HDD and install Windows or Linux on before it gets taken away.
On return you can put the original HDD back in. I know sometimes a full DoD zero wipe can take a long long time depending on how many passes you run.
Surely anything on a spare drive has to be less of an information security risk than what will be on your mum's HDD...

Amraam · 23 Sep 2014 at 17:15

PartedMaghic boot from USB and secureerase the internal HDD.