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Thread ID: 148109 2019-07-29 02:44:00 Reset to factory settings Window 7 LouiseJ (17679) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1462763 2019-07-29 02:44:00 Hi there. I have an Acer Aspire Z3771 with Windows 7 on it and want to get it ready to sell. It didn't come with an installation disk. I would really like to know whether if I do a factory reset and then follow that with using Eraser to clean the empty space on the drives, whether this would make it fairly hard for anyone to try to retrieve information from the hard drive in the future. Thank you. LouiseJ (17679)
1462764 2019-07-29 03:11:00 Most people don't care and can't anyway retrieve stuff just if it's been deleted and trash emptied.
If you are so paranoid about it, one must wonder why
piroska (17583)
1462765 2019-07-29 21:44:00 I think CCleaner has a wipe free space function : thats good enough.

You can download a Win7 install ISO from MS, or download & install Win10 & use the 7 key for that
1101 (13337)
1462766 2019-07-30 08:58:00 I think CCleaner has a wipe free space function : thats good enough.

You can download a Win7 install ISO from MS, or download & install Win10 & use the 7 key for that

Thank you. I am not young and have become security conscious. Looking online I got the impression that these days its preferable to reset etc. I tried about 10 times to install Win10 and got to the point where I thought after what I went through that Windows 7 is just fine! It deleted restore points among other things. I learnt a lot. But I will leave that to the new owner. I am happy to go with clean free space :) Thanks for your help.
LouiseJ (17679)
1462767 2019-07-31 21:50:00 Thank you. I am not young and have become security conscious. Looking online I got the impression that these days its preferable to reset etc. I tried about 10 times to install Win10 and got to the point where I thought after what I went through that Windows 7 is just fine! It deleted restore points among other things. I learnt a lot. But I will leave that to the new owner. I am happy to go with clean free space :) Thanks for your help.

What I would do is create a new user in Win (with admin rights),
then login as that user , and delete your user a/c . The manually go to C:\users and delete your a/c folder in there .
Thats usually good enough (Assuming you arnt using MYOB or similar that stores databases in other folders)
1101 (13337)
1462768 2019-07-31 23:44:00 Being an Acer, why not simply run the factory reset thats built in. That will wipe everything (for all intended purposes)

Heres how community.acer.com

Failing that you can also run the windows sysprep but thats a little more complicated to do :)
wainuitech (129)
1462769 2019-08-01 07:03:00 Thank you 1101. I think you are absolutely right. There is only one user and that would clear that info. LouiseJ (17679)
1462770 2019-08-01 07:04:00 What I would do is create a new user in Win (with admin rights),
then login as that user , and delete your user a/c . The manually go to C:\users and delete your a/c folder in there .
Thats usually good enough (Assuming you arnt using MYOB or similar that stores databases in other folders)

Thank you 1101. I think you are absolutely right. There is only one user and that would clear that info.
LouiseJ (17679)
1462771 2019-08-01 07:07:00 Being an Acer, why not simply run the factory reset thats built in. That will wipe everything (for all intended purposes)

Heres how community.acer.com

Failing that you can also run the windows sysprep but thats a little more complicated to do :)

Hi wainuitech. I just got so spooked by having the last attempted upgrade to win10 resulting in deleted restore points that I am in recovery mode myself, i.e. too scared to attempt to do the built in factory reset. Everything is telling me it will be fine but ...:) I reckon sysprep (not sure what that is but it sounds complicated) truly would be too nervewracking for me. I have really lost confidence! Thanks for your reply though.
LouiseJ (17679)
1462772 2019-08-01 09:12:00 Being an Acer, why not simply run the factory reset thats built in. That will wipe everything (for all intended purposes)

Heres how community.acer.com

Failing that you can also run the windows sysprep but thats a little more complicated to do :)

I have just realised that I can download Windows 7 and make an installation disk/usb if the factory reset fails and I get into trouble. Thank you for prodding me in on this one. I have no idea why I didn't think to see if I could do this. I would then be far more confident in attempting to upgrade to Win10 once that was done. Thank you again.
LouiseJ (17679)
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