

Access Windows 10 Reset this PC by following approaches:

You can make your choice accordingly and then perform reinstallation.ġ. To be precise, “Keep my files” will remove apps, settings but keep your personal files in system partition (usually C drive), and “Remove everything” will remove all your apps, settings as well as personal files.

It will give you options to reset Windows 10 and keep files, or directly remove everything from the PC. In Windows 10, you can use Reset this PC feature to reset the computer to factory settings. Wipe C drive or system disk via specialist software (most secure) Clean the entire hard drive including C drive via DiskPart But if you want to erase the old hard drive for more storage space, you can also use Method 2 or Method 3.

Just press the specific key during startup to enter BIOS, and set the new hard drive as the first boot option. > If you only want to make Windows boot smoothly from the new hard drive, then you don't have to delete the old C drive. To clean a hard drive in Windows 10 completely, you can go to Method 2 or Method 3.ĭelete Windows installation from the old hard drive and keep it as a secondary storage. > Manual deletion is not secure because the deleted data is still recoverable. Remove everything off the disk (including the C drive) so as to discard the hard drive securely. But if you want to wipe only C drive completely and reinstall Windows 10 through Reset this PC, see Method 1. > If you simply want to clean up C drive in Windows to free up some disk space, you can uninstall those rarely used apps, and run disk cleanup to delete temporary files, thumbnails, downloaded files, etc. So I summarized some common scenarios where you may want to erase C drive in Windows 10:įree up space and resolve system errors, then install a clean copy of Windows to get better performance. In practice, the approach you should take depends on what you hope to achieve. How to wipe C drive in Windows 10 properly? So you need to try some other methods that work for system drive. So be sure to think twice before you attempt to wipe it.Īlso, it’s not allowed to directly format C drive in Windows 10, neither by File Explorer or Disk Management. It usually contains system files, applications, user files, etc. The C drive is the default drive where Windows 10 is installed. How do I format my C drive on Windows 10 and ensure that all of my leftover data has been removed? I bought a Windows 10 laptop and want to return it, now I need to reset it to factory settings.
