My boyfriend is selling his old 40GB Hewlett-Packard laptop to his friend. However he has complained that he could not remove the data and had no CD to reformat from. Girlfriend to the rescue!
First, I found all the files by searching through the documents, pictures, and music folders. Then I ran the search option to hunt out anymore hidden files. I put all these files on the desktop in a folder I called “burn.”
Second, I tried to remove the files. The optical drive in the laptop was a DVD-ROM only so I had to get out a card reader and a SD card where I copied the “burn” folder onto. I had to reboot the computer first before it could see the SD card.
Third, I put the XP installation CD into the drive and shut the computer down. When it rebooted, I had it boot from the CD. From there I reinstalled the operating system and then went through the steps of setting the correct time zone, time, language, and name of the new owner.
Total time: one hour.
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