HDD Factory Settings?

[Chaingun74]

Hello, all!

 

It's me again, Aidan. Just wanting to know if there's any way to set my old drive, and only my old drive, back to the factory settings. I managed to get the files off that I wanted and now I want to reset it. All help is appreciated!

 

King Regards

Aidan Ferguson

[colonel_mortis]

I presume you mean wipe the drive? If it doesn't need to be secure, you can just format it, either using Windows Partition manager or if you're installing a new OS on it, there's normally an option in the installer. If the data needs to be securely erased, there are loads of tools on the internet like http://www.killdisk.com/ (recommended by Microsoft).

[Chaingun74]

I would rather do a factory reset, on just the drive, but if all I can do is remove the data then that is much easier if not a little disappointing.

[rustikles]

I would rather do a factory reset, on just the drive, but if all I can do is remove the data then that is much easier if not a little disappointing.

I'm not sure you're understanding "factory reset" in this context. When the drive came from the factory, it was a piece of spinning disks in an enclosure. Through time, you wrote data to these discs. Therefore, would the permanent deletion of that data not be the "factory reset" that you want?

 

If you're looking to make every bit of data on the drive unrecoverable (not just right click, delete), it needs to be overwritten with new (typically random) data using some kind of software, as in what the fine colonel_mortis has suggested  ;).

 

I presume you mean wipe the drive? If it doesn't need to be secure, you can just format it, either using Windows Partition manager or if you're installing a new OS on it, there's normally an option in the installer. If the data needs to be securely erased, there are loads of tools on the internet like http://www.killdisk.com/ (recommended by Microsoft).

[SkullHockey3]

I think what he means is that he bought a pre-built computer (dell, HP, etc) and wants to reset the drive to how it was when he first got it to use as a 2nd computer?.

 

If that's the case then when you start your computer up when the  BIOS screen comes up, there should be a F-key you need to hit that will take you into recovery. Once you get in there there should be an option to reset to factory. That should re-install windows and all the computer manufacturers drivers and crapware back onto your computer just like you got it when you first bought it.  Keep in mind if you intend to use this drive with a different computer then it wont work since the windows license is tied directly to the Mobo that came in your computer.

 

The other option (like others have mentioned) is completely erase that drive (and any partitions on it), and use it as a storage drive (external case or in your computer), or toss a newer OS like win7 or win8 on it and use it in your new computer build, or current computer.

[colonel_mortis]

I think what he means is that he bought a pre-built computer (dell, HP, etc) and wants to reset the drive to how it was when he first got it to use as a 2nd computer?.

 

If that's the case then when you start your computer up when the  BIOS screen comes up, there should be a F-key you need to hit that will take you into recovery. Once you get in there there should be an option to reset to factory. That should re-install windows and all the computer manufacturers drivers and crapware back onto your computer just like you got it when you first bought it.  Keep in mind if you intend to use this drive with a different computer then it wont work since the windows license is tied directly to the Mobo that came in your computer.

 

The other option (like others have mentioned) is completely erase that drive (and any partitions on it), and use it as a storage drive (external case or in your computer), or toss a newer OS like win7 or win8 on it and use it in your new computer build, or current computer.

I don't think it will reinstall windows - more than likely it won't touch the HDD at all and you'd still have to follow the other instructions - format and reinstall. There's no way the windows installer is stored on the computer.

[rustikles]

I don't think it will reinstall windows - more than likely it won't touch the HDD at all and you'd still have to follow the other instructions - format and reinstall. There's no way the windows installer is stored on the computer.

Actually a lot of OEM machines have small, separate partitions with windows recovery disc information.

[Mountine]

try g-disk , is an ms-dos and i think it does the job