Wiping system clean for return? How?

Question

We're returning an inspiron desktop that we purchased 2 weeks ago, and going with a laptop instead. (The return has been approved by Dell.)

While I was talking to the return rep, I forgot to ask her how to wipe ours clean. In the time we've had it, we've already installed a lot of programs and stuff as well as personal family financial info and pics etc. We don't want that to be seen by anyone else.

Do we just put in the Windows recovery disk and act as if we're reinstalling the OS? Anything else we have to do?

Thanks!!

NemesisDB · Answer

Boot and Nuke works well ... you could then reinstall windows once done (though I don't know that dell cares if you do this or just send it back blank as they will likely just reimage it anyway).

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

NemesisDB · Answer

jm, no love for dban?  it does that too ya know :)

jmwills · Answer

Lots of good programs out there, but if you want to wipe it completely, look for something called BC Wipe.  It will wipe the disk to DOD standards.  Be advised, this could take up to 5-6 hours.

jmwills · Answer

No love or dislike.  Just never tried it.  If it were me, I'd boot from the CD and delete the partition.

NemesisDB · Answer

All depends what's on the disk. I like dban cause it's fairly fool proof. Boot to it, pick the drive, and it over-writes it multiple times with random data.

As you pointed out though, such writes do take a long time.

cwallen19803 · Answer

i reformated the drive and put Ubuntu on it.  never heard a word from them.   http://www.ubuntu.com/

Windows General

Wiping system clean for return? How?

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