How do you go about installing windows and cleaning drives on a PC you are about to sell

[Hoppled]

So, I want to sell my old PC on ebay, yet I have no idea how I'd set it up for sale. Using Windows recovery tool and "clean start" I hear does not actually wipe the drives to the point of being safe for privacy reasons.

Another big issue I have is with Windows. I booted into Windows with the PC after resetting and using a USB flash drive installed on it. I am forced to log in or create an account though... so I'm like "great how the ♥♥♥♥ am I gonna sell this PC plug and play yet it needs me to make an account to enter desktop on Windows.

So, I made up a generic name with a new generic email just so that I can log into windows. I saved the log in info and pin # so that the buyer can use that to log in... however, is this the right way to go about it? Windows would be installed on it, but no activation key is on there. They'd need to buy a key themselves (not that you really need to these days, anyway).

[Omega]

Hard drives: Zero them, or a full (slow) format as Windows calls it.

SSDs: Wipe and run a TRIM on it. Manufacturer provided secure erase features do exactly this, but it can also be performed manually. Your SSD does require TRIM support to be able to do this, old and cheap SSDs may not have this feature.

[Hoppled]

Цитата допису Omega:

Hard drives: Zero them, or a full (slow) format as Windows calls it.

SSDs: Wipe and run a TRIM on it. Manufacturer provided secure erase features do exactly this, but it can also be performed manually. Your SSD does require TRIM support to be able to do this, old and cheap SSDs may not have this feature.

Zero them in command prompt? Also, how do I go about Windows? Since whoever buys it, will just boot into BIOS and might not know what to do (since they're buying a prebuilt).

[Omega]

Цитата допису Hoppled:

Цитата допису Omega:

Hard drives: Zero them, or a full (slow) format as Windows calls it.

SSDs: Wipe and run a TRIM on it. Manufacturer provided secure erase features do exactly this, but it can also be performed manually. Your SSD does require TRIM support to be able to do this, old and cheap SSDs may not have this feature.

Zero them in command prompt? Also, how do I go about Windows? Since whoever buys it, will just boot into BIOS and might not know what to do (since they're buying a prebuilt).

Can be done via the GUI, format the drive via the file explorer and select the slow full format option.

Clearly indicate the machines ships without an OS. Or you can always preload it with a fresh copy of Windows.

[Hoppled]

Цитата допису Omega:

Цитата допису Hoppled:

Zero them in command prompt? Also, how do I go about Windows? Since whoever buys it, will just boot into BIOS and might not know what to do (since they're buying a prebuilt).

Can be done via the GUI, format the drive via the file explorer and select the slow full format option.

Clearly indicate the machines ships without an OS. Or you can always preload it with a fresh copy of Windows.

So, it'll be okay to sell if even tho they will just boot into BIOS and will need to have their own flashdrive with windows on it?

[Omega]

Цитата допису Hoppled:

Цитата допису Omega:

Can be done via the GUI, format the drive via the file explorer and select the slow full format option.

Clearly indicate the machines ships without an OS. Or you can always preload it with a fresh copy of Windows.

So, it'll be okay to sell if even tho they will just boot into BIOS and will need to have their own flashdrive with windows on it?

If they know this is how they are buying the machine, yes.

[Hoppled]

Цитата допису Omega:

Цитата допису Hoppled:

So, it'll be okay to sell if even tho they will just boot into BIOS and will need to have their own flashdrive with windows on it?

If they know this is how they are buying the machine, yes.

What about my method of having windows installed but they need a key to activate? Idk what to go with tbh... Like if I can make it so that when they boot the PC all they have to do is log into their microsoft account, then good.. thats what I want. Although idk if I can even do that.

[Omega]

Цитата допису Hoppled:

Цитата допису Omega:

If they know this is how they are buying the machine, yes.

What about my method of having windows installed but they need a key to activate? Idk what to go with tbh... Like if I can make it so that when they boot the PC all they have to do is log into their microsoft account, then good.. thats what I want. Although idk if I can even do that.

Windows can be installed and used without a key. You could even preload it with drivers using OOBE mode if you want. So when they turn it on the machine will drop straight in to the initial setup.

[Hoppled]

Цитата допису Omega:

Цитата допису Hoppled:

What about my method of having windows installed but they need a key to activate? Idk what to go with tbh... Like if I can make it so that when they boot the PC all they have to do is log into their microsoft account, then good.. thats what I want. Although idk if I can even do that.

Windows can be installed and used without a key. You could even preload it with drivers using OOBE mode if you want. So when they turn it on the machine will drop straight in to the initial setup.

yeah thats what I did, I installed windows with a flash drive from BIOS and entered desktop by making a new account just to get to desktop. Do I need to reinstall windows again to set up OOBE mode? I'd need to logout of this generic account I made.

[Omega]

Цитата допису Hoppled:

Цитата допису Omega:

Windows can be installed and used without a key. You could even preload it with drivers using OOBE mode if you want. So when they turn it on the machine will drop straight in to the initial setup.

yeah thats what I did, I installed windows with a flash drive from BIOS and entered desktop by making a new account just to get to desktop. Do I need to reinstall windows again to set up OOBE mode? I'd need to logout of this generic account I made.

This is fine. This is how people do it very commonly.

If you ever do it again in the future; when having installed Windows and it boots in to the initial setup screen you can press CTRL + SHIFT + F3, the machine will then reboot and drop you in to administrator account so you can load it up with drivers and other changes.

[Hoppled]

Цитата допису Omega:

Цитата допису Hoppled:

yeah thats what I did, I installed windows with a flash drive from BIOS and entered desktop by making a new account just to get to desktop. Do I need to reinstall windows again to set up OOBE mode? I'd need to logout of this generic account I made.

This is fine. This is how people do it very commonly.

If you ever do it again in the future; when having installed Windows and it boots in to the initial setup screen you can press CTRL + SHIFT + F3, the machine will then reboot and drop you in to administrator account so you can load it up with drivers and other changes.

ill probably just reinstall windows and enter using ctrl+shift+F3 so I can update BIOS (new mobo I got specifically to sell this) and get drivers. I will need to wipe these drives first, so "zeroing" in CMD should be sufficient I hope.

[PopinFRESH]

Цитата допису Hoppled:

Цитата допису Omega:

This is fine. This is how people do it very commonly.

If you ever do it again in the future; when having installed Windows and it boots in to the initial setup screen you can press CTRL + SHIFT + F3, the machine will then reboot and drop you in to administrator account so you can load it up with drivers and other changes.

ill probably just reinstall windows and enter using ctrl+shift+F3 so I can update BIOS (new mobo I got specifically to sell this) and get drivers. I will need to wipe these drives first, so "zeroing" in CMD should be sufficient I hope.

Assuming you're talking about Windows 7 or later doing the full format in the Windows disk management will write zeros to the whole disk as Omega described. If you want something "more secure" than that you can get DBAN (Derik's Boot and Nuke) and have it do a more through wipe by multiple passes and writing random data to the disk rather than zeros. Just keep in mind this will take significantly longer to do; and isn't really needed for a typical gaming PC. If you had personal financial data stored on some of the disks then I might consider running DBAN for that disk; but its very unlikely you selling it to some rando... they probably aren't going to go running some several hundred dollar recovery software to try to recover your files.

Here is the Microsoft Docs on booting to audit mode and resealing to OOBE when you're done installing things.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/boot-windows-to-audit-mode-or-oobe?view=windows-11

[Iron Knights]

For Sale ? You went too far with the Install, bring the install to the Restart for first setup and stop.
Shut it down permanently. Let the client deal with accounts.
However, if you want a proper wipe, use a Linux Live boot USB, delete partitions (all) then wipe drive as professional as you want, but 0s & 1s would be sufficient to prevent recovery tools.

[Tonepoet]

Like this.

[PopinFRESH]

Цитата допису Tonepoet:

Like this.

SSD smoke, don't breath this!