Reformat of Vista Computer

I am in the process of donating a computer that has Vista on it and would
like to wipe it clean before donating it. What is the best way of going
about doing this before reinstalling Vista? I see many programs on the
internet to wipe hard drives clean, but is there a way I can do it myself
without downloading a special program?

Thanks!
Judy

"Judy" <Judy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:98D9E06B-7F10-4476-B185-BEDAD6C6F469@microsoft.com...

>I am in the process of donating a computer that has Vista on it and would
> like to wipe it clean before donating it. What is the best way of going
> about doing this before reinstalling Vista? I see many programs on the
> internet to wipe hard drives clean, but is there a way I can do it myself
> without downloading a special program?


It depends on how paranoid you want to be. For most people simply
reinstalling Vista cleanly is good enough. It's highly unlikely that the
recipient of your computer will go to the trouble of even trying to find
your old files, let alone succeed at it.

If you want to be more thorough, you need one of the third-party programs.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Thank you, Ken. I reinstalled in clean. That should be enough!

"Ken Blake" wrote:

> "Judy" <Judy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:98D9E06B-7F10-4476-B185-BEDAD6C6F469@microsoft.com...
>
> >I am in the process of donating a computer that has Vista on it and would
> > like to wipe it clean before donating it. What is the best way of going
> > about doing this before reinstalling Vista? I see many programs on the
> > internet to wipe hard drives clean, but is there a way I can do it myself
> > without downloading a special program?
>
>
> It depends on how paranoid you want to be. For most people simply
> reinstalling Vista cleanly is good enough. It's highly unlikely that the
> recipient of your computer will go to the trouble of even trying to find
> your old files, let alone succeed at it.
>
> If you want to be more thorough, you need one of the third-party programs.
>
> --
> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
> Please reply to the newsgroup
>
>
>

"Judy" <Judy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:36614470-9E5E-4E5F-B1A3-2EC0C7A55AF0@microsoft.com...

> Thank you, Ken. I reinstalled in clean. That should be enough!

You're welcome. Glad to help.



> "Ken Blake" wrote:
>
>> "Judy" <Judy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:98D9E06B-7F10-4476-B185-BEDAD6C6F469@microsoft.com...
>>
>> >I am in the process of donating a computer that has Vista on it and
>> >would
>> > like to wipe it clean before donating it. What is the best way of
>> > going
>> > about doing this before reinstalling Vista? I see many programs on the
>> > internet to wipe hard drives clean, but is there a way I can do it
>> > myself
>> > without downloading a special program?
>>
>>
>> It depends on how paranoid you want to be. For most people simply
>> reinstalling Vista cleanly is good enough. It's highly unlikely that the
>> recipient of your computer will go to the trouble of even trying to find
>> your old files, let alone succeed at it.
>>
>> If you want to be more thorough, you need one of the third-party
>> programs.
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
>> Please reply to the newsgroup
>>
>>
>>