Wiping Windows 7

Vandle

Vandle

Vandle

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2004
Posts
4,963
Location
Melbourne , Oz.
Hi, got an old all-in-one Sony Vaio desktop I want rid of. The local council do an E waste recycling scheme and I can drop it off there, not sure how they recycle though as I doubt it would be much good to anyone. It was great in its day (and expensive) but just using it there its frustratingly slow.
Trying to wipe the drive clean and can't find a way to do it. A search suggests just going to system restore and resetting back to factory settings but that option isn't available and the earliest restore point isn't early enough. Its Windows 7 home premium. Other options require the original disk which I don't have.

Any ideas? Is there a programme I can download and run? Or should I just rip out the HDD and drill some holes in it?
 
In the old days (and your laptop sounds vintage) I'd use a USB bootable copy of DBAN to properly format the hard drive

Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN

Erase hard drives, desktops, laptops or servers free with a Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) download. Try it now.
dban.org dban.org

How vintage are we talking for the laptop? There's a whole retro scene for old laptops, especially the likes of Sony. Have a look on eBay, might be worth wiping and selling on
 
Removing HDD and destroying it is definitely the quickest option.

Been years since I last used it, but in the past I would have downloaded an ISO from https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ and made a bootable CD or USB. It has a variety of tools to wipe drives which could be used.
 
If you have a 32-bit Windows 7/8/10 installer USB stick or DVD, just boot from that and don't try to install Windows. One the installer GUI loads, hit Shift + F10, run diskpart, select the right disk and run the "clean all" command.
 
Thanks all. Will try again tomorrow with DBAN.

d_brennen said:
In the old days (and your laptop sounds vintage) I'd use a USB bootable copy of DBAN to properly format the hard drive

Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN

Erase hard drives, desktops, laptops or servers free with a Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) download. Try it now.
dban.org dban.org

How vintage are we talking for the laptop? There's a whole retro scene for old laptops, especially the likes of Sony. Have a look on eBay, might be worth wiping and selling on
Click to expand...

It’s a vaio desktop, not laptop. Touchscreen, was their iMac rival attempt. Weights a ton :D

uk.pcmag.com

Sony VAIO VPC-J116FX/B

PC Magazine is your complete guide to computers, phones, tablets, peripherals and more. We test and review the latest gadgets, products and services, report technology news and trends, and provide shopping advice and price comparisons.
uk.pcmag.com uk.pcmag.com
 
Vandle said:
Thanks all. Will try again tomorrow with DBAN.



It’s a vaio desktop, not laptop. Touchscreen, was their iMac rival attempt. Weights a ton :D

uk.pcmag.com

Sony VAIO VPC-J116FX/B

PC Magazine is your complete guide to computers, phones, tablets, peripherals and more. We test and review the latest gadgets, products and services, report technology news and trends, and provide shopping advice and price comparisons.
uk.pcmag.com uk.pcmag.com
Click to expand...

Quick scan of eBay completed listings (using keywords Vaio all in one) shows people are willing to pay £150 or so for these still. IMO that's worth wiping, reinstalling and selling on
 
Ha. I recycled a Vaio laptop model just the other day. It was broken, unfortunately, so not good for anything apart from the recycling bin.
Formatting a drive does not delete the underlying files and they can be recovered.
I had problems drilling hard drives. I suspect that the steel cover gets work-hardened very quickly if the drill is blunt, and you end up poking the drive without penetrating it.

Smashing the dickens out of the drive with a hammer is the way to go.
 
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