When you use your computer, you build up a large amount of personal information. In case of giving your computer away or selling it, erasing the personal information from your computer would be advisable. There are many ways to get that done. You can format your computer or depend on third party software. Formatting would most probably be sufficient in erasing that personal information.
Some people use third party software which is available in the market as they think that the information is rather sensitive and they do not want to take any chances with formatting. There are some people who are not aware that there is much sensitive personal data which is left on a computer even when the files are deleted. There are ways of making it harder for others, to whom you sell, to access your data on your computer drive.
In order to format, the best thing to do would be to use a Windows Operating System installation disc. You can first back up the important files and begin to format your hard drive. You can then insert the Windows OS disk into your drive. Then, shut down and restart your computer.
You will get a message, `Press any key to boot from CD/DVD drive’. Press `Enter’. This will open the `Welcome to Setup’ screen. Press `Enter’ on the Welcome Screen. Read the End User License Agreement and press `F8’. Then, press `D’ on your keyboard. This will delete the partition. Press `Enter’ to create a new partition. Select a partition file system format (like NTFS) (New Technology File System). Press `Enter’. The Setup will now format and erase the personal data from the computer’s hard drive.