hard drive wipe

[SirYanthon]

so i had a windows 8.1 computer that got the free upgrade to windows 10, and i want to sell it to someone else; but i want to truely wipe all the data off it so other cant get my info. my options then are to either use a flash drive to manually reinstall it, and reformat the drive, but then idk if it would give me an unlicenced version, sonce the pc didnt come with a licence key when i came with windows 8.1, or i can use the built in windows 10 option to wipe the harddrive and reinstall, but what i wanna know is does it actually get rid of all my files? or does it just delete them?

[MorganO]

6 minutes ago, EdgieHippie said:

so i had a windows 8.1 computer that got the free upgrade to windows 10, and i want to sell it to someone else; but i want to truely wipe all the data off it so other cant get my info. my options then are to either use a flash drive to manually reinstall it, and reformat the drive, but then idk if it would give me an unlicenced version, sonce the pc didnt come with a licence key when i came with windows 8.1, or i can use the built in windows 10 option to wipe the harddrive and reinstall, but what i wanna know is does it actually get rid of all my files? or does it just delete them?

just run http://www.dban.org

[SirYanthon]

1 minute ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

just run DBAND

whats that?

[MorganO]

3 minutes ago, EdgieHippie said:

whats that?

see edit

[SirYanthon]

2 minutes ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

see edit

im assuming that would run off a usb drive tho, and that would then require me to reinstall windows 10 off a usb as well, and id have an unlicenced version, which id rather not since i did pay for that windows 8.1 licence. i just dont have a key. is there perhaps some way of finding that key?

[MorganO]

Just now, EdgieHippie said:

im assuming that would run off a usb drive tho, and that would then require me to reinstall windows 10 off a usb as well, and id have an unlicenced version, which id rather not since i did pay for that windows 8.1 licence. i just dont have a key. is there perhaps some way of finding that key?

not sure to be honest

[SirYanthon]

i found this

[SirYanthon]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

under: Activating after reinstalling Windows 10

it says: If you activated a free upgrade to Windows 10 or bought and activated Windows 10 from the Windows Store, you have a digital license for your device. This means you can reinstall the same edition of Windows 10 that your device has a digital license for without entering a product key. During reinstallation, if you’re asked to enter a product key, you can skip this step. Windows 10 will automatically activate online after the installation is complete

 

im guessing that wouldnt work if i truely wiped the drive tho cause then that key wouldnt be there

[SirYanthon]

or maybe its linked to my microsoft account

[Verrierr]

1 minute ago, EdgieHippie said:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

under: Activating after reinstalling Windows 10

it says: If you activated a free upgrade to Windows 10 or bought and activated Windows 10 from the Windows Store, you have a digital license for your device. This means you can reinstall the same edition of Windows 10 that your device has a digital license for without entering a product key. During reinstallation, if you’re asked to enter a product key, you can skip this step. Windows 10 will automatically activate online after the installation is complete

 

im guessing that wouldnt work if i truely wiped the drive tho cause then that key wouldnt be there

It would be there. It's not stored on the HDD but online. Microsoft's server will recognize the device by mobo serial number.

[SirYanthon]

1 minute ago, Verrierr said:

It would be there. It's not stored on the HDD but online. Microsoft's server will recognize the device by mobo serial number.

if thats true, thats amazing!

[Verrierr]

1 minute ago, EdgieHippie said:

if thats true, thats amazing!

I'm 100% certain it is.

[SirYanthon]

Just now, Verrierr said:

I'm 100% certain it is.

do you perhaps have a source page on microsofts site confirming this?

[SirYanthon]

this is the built in function i was asking about in the original post

[Verrierr]

Just now, EdgieHippie said:

do you perhaps have a source page on microsofts site confirming this?

Nope, I just know it. You can search microsoft's website if you don't belive me, it's gotta be there somewhere. Also I'm pretty sure Linus mentioned this in one of his videos.

[Verrierr]

2 minutes ago, EdgieHippie said:

this is the built in function i was asking about in the original post

I suppose you could go with either removing everyting or restoring factory settigns. Windows will not ask you to re-enter license key if you do.

[SirYanthon]

Just now, Verrierr said:

I suppose you could go with either removing everyting or restoring factory settigns. Windows will not ask you to re-enter license key if you do.

well yea, but idk if it would truely get rid of all my files and make them unrecoverable, or if they would simply be deleted

[Verrierr]

3 minutes ago, EdgieHippie said:

well yea, but idk if it would truely get rid of all my files and make them unrecoverable, or if they would simply be deleted

They'd be recoverable given someone was willing make some effort. If you want to be 100% sure your future buyer won't be able to access any of your stuff, you'd have to use software to wipe your drives clean.

Edit: For stuff like this I use MiniTool Partition Wizard (free version is enough) and I think it's worth recommending

[SirYanthon]

3:35-4:11

fantastic!!