reset my pc

[Beep05]

Hello Community;

I have a desktop pc with OS of windows 10  home, I am donating it to a needy person, if I do a factory reset to delete my existing information, apps and settings will the person be able to reset the pc to reflect his name and his new settings ??.

Is there instructions how  a new owner of the pc can change the settings to reflect deleting my information and inserting his name etc. ?

Any information sure will be helpful, for I would like to help this needy person out.   This is a PC that I no longer need.

Thanks for reading.BEEP05

[Bill_To]

Hi @Beep05 

Welcome back to the HP Forum.

Yes, for all practical purposes, doing a factory reset will over write data on the system drive to the extent of the drive space occupied by the new Windows installation.

Any files owned by you could still exist on the system drive if the files have been written to an area on the drive which are not over written by the new operating system installation.

Back in the old days reformatting a system drive removed file allocation table pointers, not the data. I don't know if the W10 reformat function wipes all data on the entire system drive.

You may have to wipe the drive using third party software before reinstalling Windows to be completely safe. You would need disk wiping software that runs outside of Windows (bootable USB or CD/DVD). This software would also have to support SSDs if you have a SSD system drive.

Or keep any drives included with your PC, install a new system drive in the PC. Then install Windows on the new unallocated drive.

Since you have not provided a HP Product number it is unknown if you have a second drive for data. You would also have to wipe this drive if it contains sensitive data.

Just reinstall Windows on a new drive or sanitized drive after wiping the drive. Create a generic user name (USER) and no password on the new Windows installation. Then let the new user do their thing to personalize the installation.

Opinions or troubleshooting suggestions in this response are provided independently. I am not employed by: HP, Inc. or the HP Forum.

Regards