Formatting Drives Help (Win 10)

[Craig "Freaking" Morrison]

I've been trying to format my drives recently to get my computer ready to sell but when I tried to format the only drive on my computer and got the message "You cannot format this volume" I searched how to fix this and stuff about deleting my recovery partition appeared. I eventually came across a tutorial that lead me to the "Recovery" tab within the "Update & Security" and then clicked "Reset this PC" then "Get started" I began the resetting process and was faced with a message that said "There was a problem reseting your PC" and "No changes were made" I searched how to fix this and stuff about deleting partitions came up. I followed a tutorial which lead me to delete the Recovery Partition. I tried to reset my PC again and was faced with another message saying something about not being able to find the environment. PLS HELLLP

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

just use hdd manufacturer's formatting utility to format the hdd...
for seagate, use seagate discwizard bootable edition (burn to cd the *.iso) or from a working computer, use seagate discwizard for windows.

or

use third party tools like the free minitool partition wizard bootable cd edition...

[[☥] - CJ -]

Do you have a Windows OS DVD or USB?

You can just use that to go into the OS install and delete everything that way.

[Seven7]

use dban, mhdd or victoria for dos for full erase data "by DoD DSS standarts" (but really DSS recommend degauss hdd, that kill disk)
this utills can remove all partitions, include HPA http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Hidden_Protected_Area

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Publicado originalmente por ☥ - CJ -:

Do you have a Windows OS DVD or USB?

You can just use that to go into the OS install and delete everything that way.

^ This

There is no need to download any other tools.

Connect just the Drive you wish to wipe and boot from your WinOS media (disc or flash drive)
Once you get here:
http://imgur.com/a/t4IuH
^ those options are revealed once you click Advanced; then click each partition and click Delete. Done! Now power off the system and remove the drive; or go ahead and clean install an OS.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Publicado originalmente por Bad-Motha:

Publicado originalmente por ☥ - CJ -:

Do you have a Windows OS DVD or USB?

You can just use that to go into the OS install and delete everything that way.

^ This

There is no need to download any other tools.

Connect just the Drive you wish to wipe and boot from your WinOS media (disc or flash drive)
Once you get here:
http://imgur.com/a/t4IuH
^ those options are revealed once you click Advanced; then click each partition and click Delete. Done! Now power off the system and remove the drive; or go ahead and clean install an OS.

^This

You can learn a lot about partitions from this video, but if a user has a SSD, then it's complately pointless to do partition, unless it to dual boot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeUM4kR67XQ

Overall, it's not going to matter for gaming, but for booting up a bit faster or moving files this one place to another, this where partition helps, if you set it up to only use the part of the disk to "short stroke" it will boost your read and write speeds, but at the cost of dividing your space.

IMO partitions are not needed, unless you're gonna dual boot, but if not then it's pointless to do it. These days anyone can get a 120/240+ GB SSD, which will just make HDD look like a average fat guy versus the world fastest athlete Usain Bolt in a 100 meter dash, just like this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh28qfWkjhs

[Bad 💀 Motha]

No need for this info; the OP just wants to wipe a drive... jeez
The linked picture was a mere example of what it would generally look like to boot from WinOS media and wipe a drive.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Publicado originalmente por Bad-Motha:

No need for this info; the OP just wants to wipe a drive... jeez
The linked picture was a mere example of what it would generally look like to boot from WinOS media and wipe a drive.

Can't hurt to share a bit of knowledge about why they exist. Also I know that you were using that picture as a example as what it looks like.

[Craig "Freaking" Morrison]

Publicado originalmente por Bad-Motha:

No need for this info; the OP just wants to wipe a drive... jeez
The linked picture was a mere example of what it would generally look like to boot from WinOS media and wipe a drive.

Yeah it's greatly appreciated. I am very new to computers and am hoping to build my own for Christmas by selling my current pc and I find it overwhelming after hearing about all this stuff when it comes to formating drives but I actually just want all my personal files gone and I would like a super basic steps by step process to do so. Thanks

[Craig "Freaking" Morrison]

Preparing to sell PC

I am preparing to sell my PC but I have also been overwhelmed when it comes to actually deleting my personal files. I have heard many different ways of doing it and I find them all to confusing or to hard to keep up with. I have gotten the free Windows 10 license after buying my PC which had Windows 8.1 previously installed. I am looking for an easy steps by step process that can help me easily format my one and only drive with no confusion. The reason this is so difficult for me is because I used the Windows 10 feature which resets your PC for you and does all the work. But when I did that I was prompted with the error message saying "There was a problem reseting your PC, no changes were made." So I looked into this and followed a tutorial which had me delete my Recovery partition. Now Windows 10 won't let me even start the process of reseting it because of a "missing environment" which I believe was the Recovery Partition. So if someone could please provide me with an easy step by step tutorial on how to fix all my problems... THAT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. (Also I do not need to backup my files, I will not be using this PC anymore)

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Honestly, hard drives are cheap enough, I would just purchase a small new one and keep/destroy the old one.

Otherwise, this seems like a good tutorial.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-wipe-a-hard-drive-2624527

[zombie cat]

Publicado originalmente por Barf the Mawg:

Honestly, hard drives are cheap enough, I would just purchase a small new one and keep/destroy the old one.

Otherwise, this seems like a good tutorial.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-wipe-a-hard-drive-2624527

this, just take out the hdd and sell it without one.

[[☥] - CJ -]

We told you as basic as it can get lol

If you have a Windows OS disk
ANY Windows OS

Use that to Format the drive and delete the partitions

[Craig "Freaking" Morrison]

Publicado originalmente por ☥ - CJ -:

We told you as basic as it can get lol

If you have a Windows OS disk
ANY Windows OS

Use that to Format the drive and delete the partitions

I know... that's why I said thanks...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

^ This; the buyer can just put basically any SATA drive in and load an OS like Linux, SteamOS, Win10

All they really need to know as far as getting Drivers; is the models for Motherboard and GPU.

[76561198135154379]

Dude, just pluck out your hard drive and put in a fresh one. Yeah, you can nuke the data on it, but make it 100% safe and just pop in a new, cheap drive. Keep your old or literally destroy it.