Question about erasing computer

[SpencerHH]

I recently build my computer, and I have an SSD and a hard drive. And with having an SSD, came the issue of desperately not wanting to install most programs on to it. So I did some stuff, and now I realize there are a lot of things I would have done differently, so I want to start from square one and erase both drives. But I'm just curious on how I should go about doing that, because I'm not sure what factory settings is going to do on a PC that isn't from a manufacturer. I'm open to everything, including having to install Windows again, as I was never asked for a product key

Thanks

[hak4fun]

Hmmm... You can try following this tutorial to find your windows product key and then just reinstalling windows like usual http://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-to-find-your-lost-windows-or-office-product-keys/

[Viiza]

You need your product key when reinstalling windows, so try to find that somewhere before doing any formatting or reinstalling.

 

To do a "fresh start":

1. Make sure you don't have any data you don't want to lose on the drives
2. Boot into windows installation media
3. Choose "custom install", "advanced install" or something like that
4. Format both drives
5. Choose to install OS on SSD
6. Wait
7. Done?

[Captain_WD]

I recently build my computer, and I have an SSD and a hard drive. And with having an SSD, came the issue of desperately not wanting to install most programs on to it. So I did some stuff, and now I realize there are a lot of things I would have done differently, so I want to start from square one and erase both drives. But I'm just curious on how I should go about doing that, because I'm not sure what factory settings is going to do on a PC that isn't from a manufacturer. I'm open to everything, including having to install Windows again, as I was never asked for a product key

Thanks

 

 

Hey SpencerHH,

 

You can easily format the drives and make them appear as new. Formatting technically does not erase anything but the table that shows where the files are and thus the drive appears as empty for the OS and new data is written over the old one. This should be good enough for you. Once you put your OS installing disk/thumb drive in the system, it will ask you where to install the OS. You should simply point it to the SSD and format it. Once installed, you can format the HDD from Windows.

 

Another option for erasing a drive is writing zeros. That literally writes a zero in every spot on the drive, making it practically unreadable and empty with very little chance of recovering the data. 

 

Captain_WD.