Looking to sell my PC - tips required on changing hard drive etc

nobile

Hi

Looking to offload my PC.

Dell Inspiron 660
i3 / 4GB Ram / 1TB hard drive / upgraded to Windows 10
5 years old

Tried to follow online instructions from multiple sites on wiping hard drive clean using various types of software but not happening, so I've given up.

Decided to replace the Hard drive instead.

Do I have put Windows back on it or can I just sell it without an Operating System?

And finally, how do I know what hard drive is compatable - there seem to be so many models & variations out there.

Thanks

arciere

nobile wrote: »

Do I have put Windows back on it or can I just sell it without an Operating System?

And finally, how do I know what hard drive is compatable - there seem to be so many models & variations out there.

It's up to you, but I guess it will be more attractive with the OS already installed.
Compatible drive: as long as it's SATA you should be ok. 2.5" or 3.5" depends on the computer (just take a look at the one you have removed).
5 years old, I would say it's a 3.5" SATA.

EveryWhere

As arciere states, it's up to you.

A 120GB solid state drive costs as little as £20. It doesn't matter if it is 2.5" SATA or 3.5". They will both work. The SSD will make the PC super fast in use.

If you don't want to spend any money DBAN and then a clean install of Windows 10 would be fine.

nobile

I tried that Dban but no joy. couldnt get to grips with it

EveryWhere

nobile wrote: »

I tried that Dban but no joy. couldnt get to grips with it

Download and save the image; https://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/dban-2.3.0/dban-2.3.0_i586.iso/download

Continue here; https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-erase-a-hard-drive-using-dban-2619148

Have the Windows 10 installation media ready for once you've zeroed the HDD.

https://software-download.microsoft.com/sg/Win10_1803_EnglishInternational_x64.iso?t=1672da4e-2d64-4e1f-ac55-8eb5bf23f262&e=1537821730&h=3fb9072cb16959f7a7f6f0dbb7d770f4

Personally I would swap the drive with another, perhaps a 120GB SSD(https://www.mymemory.co.uk/kingston-120gb-a400-ssd-2-5-inch-sata-3-solid-state-drive-500mb-s.html or https://mobymemory.com/uk/liteon-120gb-2-5-ssd-560mb-s-3d-nand-ph6-ce120), buy a caddy for the 1 TB drive and use it as external storage. Peace of mind for yourself.

You can also replace with another HDD; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Western-Digital-500GB-7200RPM-SATA-III-6Gb-s-16MB-Cache-3-5-Hard-Drive-HDD/323418898919