I am selling my laptop and need to format help me plz

To formate my windows XP laptop would be an easy thing if i had a windows CD or a floppy drive but since i dont i have a problem. The reason i want to format is to get all my stored things away, like all auto passwords the computer remember. Like Steam, my browser and other programs where my laptop remembers the username and password.

Is there an easy way to make the laptop forget all this info?

 

does it matter if windows is erased?

edit.. oh ic

 

Thats what i want, but i dont know how without a win cd and a floppy drive

 

You can erase using boot and nuke, but if you want to reinstall windows that is a different matter.

 

Get a Linux CD and nuke everything.

 

There's a way to make Windows XP install off of a flash drive (google for it, I don't remember off the top of my head) and if you're using an SP3 CD or you go into the BIOS and set the SATA mode to compatability/IDE, you won't need a floppy drive to load any drivers.

 

wooo..... looks like i am living in a different planet

first of all chill out man no need to format

your have a simple problem : u want to erase all the old data permanently so here it is

for BROWSERS: just go to options include everything from history to cache to passwords to logins , all info , then delete it , now go to temp directory of your windows and delete all the files present there now just restart your system ,

for System, just select data u wanna delete and just simple shift delete or u can use some tool for heavy deletion of files , again go to disk utilities and use disk clean up , clean the temp , now restart your system

for your system login info , go to control panel just delete all the passwords delete all the users make sure u are admin and then again restart it

so here u go , your fresh xp once again

 

whatever method you use, don't make the mistake of simply partitioning the drive and quick-recreating the filesystem tables.

You need to go through a full disk format which should take more than 30 minutes.

If you try to cheat the process and only mess with the partition tables and filesystem tables, you leave the door wide open to commonly available utilities that can recover/rebuild both of those items. And once those items are recovered, everything on the disk is potentially recoverable.

Full format, preferably three passes each time with a different filesystem (NTFS, ext3/4, ZFS).

Expect to take a few hours for this. Good thing is that you can walk away from the process after you press a few buttons to get it started.

Any resaonably recent Linux distro will let you do all of this. pick one, d/l it, burn a dvd, boot, work through the install process to partition and full-format. then do it again but pick a different filesystem

it's really easy but YOU have to decide to invest the time to do it properly otherwise you may as well not do it at all.

 

Or simply download the program KillDisk to erase the entire HDD if you can boot from an USB stick.

Download the Download Bootable Disk Creator for DOS version of KillDisk (Free) (USB Flash & Floppy) from this page.

Install the program as per instructions on that site on an USB stick.

Now you can erase the entire HDD with a one-pass zero run (which is sufficient if you are not a king/general/billion dollar company CEO/CFO/CTO etc).

 

Terrible advice.

Download DBAN, burn to disc, pop in optical drive, restart computer, boot from disc (keystroke depends on system), and wipe using autonuke. Done.

 

I don't think you guys are understanding what he wants - he's selling his laptop, and will want to have a clean (none of his own user data) version of XP to sell it with, but without install media he cannot just nuke it. How does he remove all of his own traces in order to safely sell it? (without the buyer saying, "Linux, what's that then?")

 

There should be a way to produce recovery discs, unless the OS is non-legit or a personal version. Or better yet, why not use the serial key on the bottom of the laptop case and download the legal windows install files from MS?

 

First uninstall all the programs you want to and then get off all of your personal files.

Then install ccleaner, run the program and tick all of the options under 'Cleaner' including the ones under Windows and Applications and all the 'advanced options' like 'wipe free space'.

Click 'Run Cleaner.'