How to Completely Erase XP From a Hard Drive

Erasing your hard drive may be necessary if you are no longer going to be using the computer and are preparing it for sale, or if you have sensitive information on the computer and just want it erased. The process of completely erasing XP from a hard drive will erase all traces of the software and of the materials you had on your computer. There are several steps you will need to take to complete the process of erasing your hard drive, as well as precautionary steps you'll need to take beforehand.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hard-drive-erasing and reformatting software

1. Back up all of the files you want to keep. This includes pictures, music, videos and documents that you want to save. Save them on a memory stick or a floppy disk. Either way, have them backed up, because what you're about to do will wipe everything clean off your computer.

2. Purify your hard drive via a process known as erasing. Use software like Wipe Drive. Insert the Wipe Drive disk into your CD ROM; the software will automatically load and ask you whether you want to erase your entire hard drive. Click "Yes." Any data, antivirus programs or documents in your computer need to be erased.

3. Reformat your hard drive. Wipe Drive will do this automatically for you once it is done erasing your hard drive. This is a process that takes several hours and wipes everything off your computer so that you start over clean from square one. When Wipe Drive is done erasing your hard drive, a window will pop up asking if you would like to reformat your hard drive. Click "Yes."

4. Take the Wipe Drive disk out of your CD-ROM.

5. Boot up your computer, and your drive will be indicated in some way on your DOS blank screen. You will see either an a:/ or a c:/. When it does this, your Wipe Drive software has successfully and completely erased XP from your hard drive.

Resources

• Purchase Wipe Drive software
• Learn to completely erase a hard drive (from PC World Magazine)