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How to delete everything but OS securely? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by ShunkW@lemmy.world to c/techsupport@lemmy.world

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I'm looking to sell my laptop. I've used stuff like DBAN before but that nukes the whole drive obviously. Is there any good way to leave the OS intact after a reset but also make sure that there's no recoverable data?

Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks!

Edit to add: I don't have the product key for the pre installed Windows 10 OS. Maybe there's a way to recover that and reinstall after a full wipe?

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[–] DickFiasco@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There's no way to know if Windows stored some personal data in an OS directory somewhere, so nuking the whole disk is the only way to be safe. If this is an SSD drive, then wiping should be done with secure erase, not by overwriting like you'd do with a magnetic HDD.

[–] ShunkW@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I didn't know about this feature. Looks like I should be able to do this with the Dell UEFI secure erase. Now to get a USB-A to USB-C adapter since that's all the laptop has so I can reinstall the OS after.