Want To Baseline Windows 10

Pferox · October 20, 2015, 09:48:22 AM

I'm getting a new laptop, and the old Lenovo is still working pretty good. We have a friend who needs an updated machine, (still using XP and it won't take any upgrade OS) so I thought I would delete all of my personal information on the laptop and give it to that person.

I don't have any of the secrete codes needed for a clean wipe and install, so am in a quandary how I can go about doing this without deleting the OS, doing a repartition and format and reinstalling the OS again.

I'm hoping someone has the secret commands to baseline this thing again.

Mike Cork · October 20, 2015, 11:54:51 AM

Over my head... Princeton_man probably has something that will work.

Pferox · October 20, 2015, 01:35:15 PM

Quote from: Mike Cork on October 20, 2015, 11:54:51 AM
Over my head... Princeton_man probably has something that will work.

I hope so, I used to get a lot of machines and would baseline them in a few different ways to donate to different people, but can't find those commands anywhere on the newer software.

caddyjoe77 · October 20, 2015, 02:21:21 PM

Quote from: Pferox on October 20, 2015, 09:48:22 AM
I'm getting a new laptop, and the old Lenovo is still working pretty good. We have a friend who needs an updated machine, (still using XP and it won't take any upgrade OS) so I thought I would delete all of my personal information on the laptop and give it to that person.

I don't have any of the secrete codes needed for a clean wipe and install, so am in a quandary how I can go about doing this without deleting the OS, doing a repartition and format and reinstalling the OS again.

I'm hoping someone has the secret commands to baseline this thing again.

To copy your data, you have a profile. If it is windows XP it is located in C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername (the account that you log in with). In there you have folders like Desktop, favorites ..etc. copy the data that you need to a flash drive or portable USB.

for Windows 7, it is called C:\Users\yourusername -- Desktop, favorites, my documents...etc.

Once you are sure you have all your data, there are some free data shredding utilities out there. Use those to remove your old data once you copy your data off. I can look tonight because I cannot remember off the top of the cranium at the moment. A format does not really clean the data, it merely breaks the link from the inode table on the disk. All your old stuff is recoverable unless you actually "shred" it.

Pferox · October 20, 2015, 07:38:48 PM

When I partition a hard drive I use a government security program I acquired that cleans that thing like a whistle. But I don't want to do that because I don't have a way to reload Windows 10 back on it then.

Tavery5 · October 20, 2015, 09:06:51 PM

Some computers have a bootable maintenance partition. On this partition they have a utility that allows you to restore your computer back to the factory installation of operating system and software.

Different systems require different keystrokes to boot to the maintenance partition, you may have to do a little on-line research and see if your system has this option.

caddyjoe77 · October 20, 2015, 10:45:55 PM

Quote from: Pferox on October 20, 2015, 07:38:48 PM
When I partition a hard drive I use a government security program I acquired that cleans that thing like a whistle. But I don't want to do that because I don't have a way to reload Windows 10 back on it then.

correct. I was talking about the free space, aka the slack space that happens once you delete files. What I mean is, once you copy your profile data that you want and before you give the laptop to your friend.

http://www.howtogeek.com/137108/how-securely-overwrite-free-space-in-windows/

Eric L. · January 18, 2016, 07:46:43 PM

I've ran into this in a couple of different situations. One was the hard drive STB and wouldn't even spin. I still have my install disks for windows 7 from aways back, it was one of the 3 pack upgrade versions. I put a new hd in and installed win7, but couldn't get it to accept the code to authenticate as a genuine version of windows, and basically was stuck after the initial trial period.
I contacted MS and went through the phone tree and actually got a code to use from them after explaining the issue.
I haven't tried this with win10 yet, and you have to have an authenticated version of win7 or better fully patched to do the free upgrade to win 10. May be worth a try if you have an install disk?