HP Disk Santizer runs over and over and over

[NatJag]

Hi. My friend gifted my son a DELL Preciision M6300. Before sending it to us he must have run HP Disk Sanitizer. When I turned on the unit, it prompted me to run it again. So I did... and now I have 3 times. When it's done running (takes about 4 hours) it gives me an option to shut down my laptop. I do so. Then I reboot and as soon as windows loads it opens the interface for HP Disk Sanitizer. If I cancel this, the laptop shuts down.

I know very little about computers, but have managed to do a few things in the past like replace a hard drive, load an OS, etc... so I can do a few things.  I have tried searching the Internet for help, have tried going into the settings when booting and all that looks good... I changed they way the laptop boots to go to the hard drive first (just grapsing at straws of course), I ran network diagnositcs and there is nothing wrong there.

I haven't ask the friend who sent it to us because I really don't want to trouble him as he went to a lot of trouble to give my son this wonderful laptop. So, just reaching out here to see if I can figure it out on my own.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.

Kind regards.

[Dragon-Fur]

@NatJag

I would guess that running the Disk Sanitizer on your Dell notebook wiped out the Operating System or in some way inhibited the system from "booting around" the problem.

Talking to your friend will at least allow you to understand his intentions.

Regardless, it might be time to check in with the Dell forum (or contact Dell Tech Support) to find out how to best reload / install the OS.

In general, if the computer was running Windows 10, you can install Windows 10 using the tools provided by Microsoft at their download / create media center.  This includes a computer that was upgraded to Windows 10 -- Microsoft knows about upgrades and allows you to later reinstall the same OS version.

Losing the OS is not great (if that is what happened) -- but it does not break the computer in the sense that software can be reloaded onto a computer that is "hardware" healthy.

Thank you for participating in the HP Community Forum.

We are a community of HP enthusiasts dedicated to supporting HP devices and technology.

[NatJag]

Yes! That is exactly what is going on. That and the fact that the HP Cleaner CD was in the DVD drive so every time it booted, it ran.

I do need to install an OS.

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

Regards!

[Dragon-Fur · Accepted solution]

@NatJag

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@NatJag wrote:

Yes! That is exactly what is going on. That and the fact that the HP Cleaner CD was in the DVD drive so every time it booted, it ran.

I do need to install an OS.

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

Regards!

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Ah!  Makes sense.

Good Luck.

If you celebrate, Merry Christmas.

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