How to prepare a W10 laptop for sale

coffeehound

Just working up to selling a Dell laptop running Windows 10.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for how to reliably remove personal files and hopefully return it to a point where it is as-new for the new owner.

Is it possible to leave it without password protection so that the new user can set up their own administrator account?

I've got CCleaner installed. The machine is about five months old and doesn't have much installed. Would prefer to not have to do a whole new installation if possible (mainly because I don't know how).

Thanks.

arciere

I would install Windows from scratch instead. You can remove as much as you want but you will never remove everything. Better to spend a couple of hours with a new installation than worry later.

grumpycrab

Reinstall W10 (if not a clean install, install with "delete apps and data"); if using a Microsofft login, change that to local login.

Peter999_2

Personally, I would go into :


1. Click on the windows key and type in "recovery"
2. Click on the Recovery Options icon.
3. Under the Reset This PC column, click on Get Started.
4. Choose "Remove Everything" which removes all of your personal files, apps and setting.
5. It could take a couple of hours depening on the speed of the PC.


Hope this helps.

Frozen_up_north

See: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/secure-sanitisation-storage-media

Anything less is problematic...

System

Delete all files and leave them in the recycle bin, install CCleaner and in the options select the secure erase option and to wipe all free space then run it. This will delete all your personal files, internet cache etc securely and write random data over them so they can't be recovered.

tronator

Tarambor wrote: »

Delete all files and leave them in the recycle bin, install CCleaner and in the options select the secure erase option and to wipe all free space then run it. This will delete all your personal files, internet cache etc securely and write random data over them so they can't be recovered.

Are you sure CCleaner treats the files in the recycle bin as empty space? I'm not using windows, but I would think that the files in the recycle bin still exist as files in the filesystem.


What's the point of leaving the files in the recycle bin when you erase empty space anyway?

System

tronator wrote: »

Are you sure CCleaner treats the files in the recycle bin as empty space? I'm not using windows, but I would think that the files in the recycle bin still exist as files in the filesystem.


What's the point of leaving the files in the recycle bin when you erase empty space anyway?

CCleaner does secure erase so it deletes the file the writes over the area the file was in with garbage data. You leave it in the recycle bin because the OS doesn't delete them but merely moves them to a system folder. When you then run CCleaner it does the deletion as I mentioned and then writes over the same physical space on the drive again when it wipes the free space thus effectively giving a 2 stage scrub of your data making damned sure it can't be retrieved.

coffeehound

Thanks all. I did belt and braces — the ccleaner then the restore per Peter999 instructions. Nearly soiled myself when cortana blared out at max volume on restart but otherwise fine and dandy, cheers

googler

I would take the hard drive out and keep it. Sell the laptop without hard drive, or install a second-hand drive from eBay or such, and install a fresh OS on it.

That's the most secure way of not passing your files on to someone else.