- 1). Back up any important files on the system to an external hard drive.
- 2). Download and install a hard drive cleaning software package and follow the instructions to create a system boot disc that will securely erase the hard drive by overwriting it.
- 3). Restart the computer with the hard drive cleaning boot disc in the optical drive. Press "Enter" when prompted to boot from the CD/DVD drive. Follow the prompts on the screen to completely erase the primary hard drive partition (Drive C). Allow the operation to complete and remove the boot disc from the computer and replace it with the operating system installation disc or system recovery disc.
- 4). Restart the computer and press "Enter" when prompted to boot from the CD / DVD drive. Alternately press "F11" to access the system recovery partition on some computers. Refer to the documentation that was included with the system to determine if the option is available on a particular computer.
- 5). Follow the prompts to choose a language, time zone and other settings and to accept the license agreement. Complete the installation and remove the disc from the optical drive. Restart the computer.
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