How can I uninstall Windows 7 Pro from the C drive?

I am getting rid of a laptop (Dell Inspiron 1545) which has windows 7 Pro that I clean installed. How can I wipe the disk including windows 7 pro, so that the C Drive (hdd) is empty of the OS so that I can retain the license and reinstall in another pc?
I have tried to wipe the disk with DBAN 2.2.6 (Beta) without success, it keeps coming up with a fatal error when using the "autonuke" command and it will not proceed any further when I press F10 in the "Enter" command, tried Active@Kill and wiped all my personal data but not the OS and WipeDisk which cannot be used as it will only wipe the data and needs Windows, it does not work!
I do not wish to get rid of the laptop with the OS still installed in the HDD, so basically I want to uninstall Windows!!
Like I said DBAN does not work and DiskWipe and Active@Kill use Windows, so the C drive cannot be wiped!
Any suggestions in wiping the C Drive of all its contents would be most welcome!

How can I wipe the disk including windows 7 pro, so that the C Drive (hdd) is empty of the OS so that I can retain the license and reinstall in another pc?

You can easily wipe the disk, but you can't retain the license and reinstall (unless you installed a retail version of Windows 7 yourself). The OS supplied with Dells is an OEM version that is specific to the machine it is sold with.

In reply to a post by AEP:

How can I wipe the disk including windows 7 pro, so that the C Drive (hdd) is empty of the OS so that I can retain the license and reinstall in another pc?

You can easily wipe the disk, but you can't retain the license and reinstall (unless you installed a retail version of Windows 7 yourself). The OS supplied with Dells is an OEM version that is specific to the machine it is sold with.

That is what I meant " I installed the OS myself" it is a retail version!

The DBAN error you are probably having is due to it crashing out when it sees your laptop multi card reader. If you can temporalily disable this in the BIOS, DBAN will probably then work.

Anyway, to wipe Windows 7...

Whack the Windows 7 installation disk in. Proceed to "install windows", and then it will ask you what drive you want to install Windows on. At that point, click advanced and delete the partitions, the partitions will then be deleted.

To securely wipe the laptop, I would recommend burning an Ultimate Boot CD ISO and running one of the disk wipe utilities included in that, there's quite a few included on it.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

The DBAN error you are probably having is due to it crashing out when it sees your laptop multi card reader. If you can temporalily disable this in the BIOS, DBAN will probably then work.

I did disabled and then unistalled the card reader in Device Manager, but I did not go into the BIOS to disable it. I shall try by disableing the card reader in the BIOS next and try DBAN again. If that dosen't work I will then try your second suggestion using the Windows 7 installation disk.

Will post back whatever the results. Thanks.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Anyway, to wipe Windows 7...

Whack the Windows 7 installation disk in. Proceed to "install windows", and then it will ask you what drive you want to install Windows on. At that point, click advanced and delete the partitions, the partitions will then be deleted.

After putting in the 1indows 7 installation disk in, "Proceed to "install windows", and then it will ask you what drive you want to install Windows on. At that point, click advanced and delete the partitions, the partitions will then be deleted."

Restarted the pc and got the message " No bootable devices..." Does this means Windows is no longer installed in the pc?

Arguable. It's still there, just not so easily accessible.

All removing a partition does is zero pointers to where on the disk the partition is stored.

All your files will also still be potentially accessible.

You need to zero the drive as Pipexer said.

Or, of course, simply install Windows from scratch which will overwrite the data sufficiently to prevent recovery unless somebody wants to spend years doing it.

As long as you dont put the licence key in your retail version of windows is "no longer" on the PC.

http://falconfour.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/falconfou...

Thanks to all for you suggestions and advice.
What I have been able to achieve so far;
Just to clarify, as far as DBAN is concerned, it did not go through its paces;
a. I tried to run the �autonuke� command but it gave the fatal errors *ERROR /dev/sdb (process crash)
*ERROR /dev/sdb (process crash)
Press and hold the power button down to shut down.
b. I tried to run the �interactive� command by pressing ENTER but came up with;
*[????] Unrecognised Device
[wipe] ATA Disk WDC WD� (name of the hard drive)
c. When I pressed the F10 key to continue, it did nothing, as if the key was disabled!
d. Shut down and restarted the pc, Windows was still fully functional!
Disabled the card reader in Device Manager and went through the whole DBAN process again, unsuccessful! Uninstalled the card reader in Device Manager and went through the whole DBAN process again, unsuccessful again!
The BIOS in the Dell Inspiron 1545, is not very help full and comprehensive as for example Phoenix etc. to find the card reader, unless it is named as �Module Bay� in the System Configuration under Miscellaneous Devices! No mention of a card reader as such!
As far as the data is concerned I did run Active@kill to over write the data with 0�s.
1. Run Active@Kill twice, whilst Windows was still fully functional, to wipe all data in the C drive with one pass of �o�, as I used the freebie version.
2. Did as Pipexer suggested, �Whack the Windows 7 installation disk in. Proceed to "install windows", and then it will ask you what drive you want to install Windows on. At that point, click advanced and delete the partitions, the partitions will then be deleted.�
3. That is as the laptop is at the moment!
4. Tried running DBAN again, but it will not boot, the pc, of course, will not recognise it is in the drive! To run any other utility I would probably have to reinstall Windows again which I�d rather not do!
Full message on the screen as it is;
�No bootable devices�strike F1 to retry boot. F2 for set up utility. Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics.�
So this is where I am Now with the pc!
I�ll try to download FalconFour�s Ultimate Boot CD/USB 4.5
As Deadbeat suggests and try and run it if it is bootable!
I do have plenty of time in trying all these out and learn from the experience and hopefully others will do too.
Keep your comments coming.

Is this article about uninstalling the activation key of any help

In reply to a post by scopio:

..... if it is bootable!....

It is a bootable ISO with all the tools you'll need and much more. Much easier than messing about with dBan etc.

I hadn't noticed you had already wiped your personal data (i.e. non-Windows files) by using Active@Kill.

That being the case you've done more than enough for a safe sale.

If this has become more of a learning exercise you might also consider using

unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

to create a bootable usb stick from the parted magic iso.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.p...

You'd need at least a 512MB usb stick.

This assumes your laptops bios allows boot from usb.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

Is this article about uninstalling the activation key of any help

Very good article and easy to do if I wanted to leave Windows in the HDD.

I could also password the setup utility and the HDD, then the ony way to log on would be to reset the CMOS by opening the case, if it can be done on a laptop!

Thanks

Thanks, I will look into it, and yes I can set the pc to boot from USB in the BIOS.

Just had a look at the two links you added, Excellent. Thanks.

In reply to a post by scopio:

..... I could also password the setup utility and the HDD, then the ony way to log on would be to reset the CMOS by opening the case, if it can be done on a laptop!

Not a good idea!
Most laptops have a hidden partition from which you can reset to factory defaults.You'll probably need to have made the restore disks for this as the Win7 installation will almost certainly have destroyed the custom MBR and or hidden partition.
If the hidden partition/MBR is shot, use the COA sticker located underneath the laptop to install a copy of the original OS (Vista Home Premium OEM?).

Edited by Deadbeat (Thu 21-Jun-12 15:57:47)

...
I could also password the setup utility and the HDD, then the ony way to log on would be to reset the CMOS by opening the case, if it can be done on a laptop!
...

In my limited experience getting to laptop internals is fiddly, time-consuming, and error prone. If you haven't done it before I reckon I'd set aside 4-6 hours to disassemble/reassemble a laptop to find the cmos battery. I'd only try it on a laptop I was going to junk.

Is this your model? http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins154...

In reply to a post by john2007:

...
I could also password the setup utility and the HDD, then the ony way to log on would be to reset the CMOS by opening the case, if it can be done on a laptop!
...

In my limited experience getting to laptop internals is fiddly, time-consuming, and error prone. If you haven't done it before I reckon I'd set aside 4-6 hours to disassemble/reassemble a laptop to find the cmos battery. I'd only try it on a laptop I was going to junk.

Is this your model? http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins154...

Yes that is my model, it only has 150GB HDD! Not suitable now adays!
My othe pc I built myself 3 years ago and installed a 1TB HDD and that is half full! But I can add another 5 SATA HDD's if necessary, which I won't, perhaps one or two smaller capacity ones for back ups.
Thats the whole idea I wouldn't have to do it, as the laptop is being given away to Tesco for recycling! I am not keeping it or giving it to friend/s or people I know!

If you know any one who had an IDE or SATA hard drive enclosure. Take out the hard drive and connect it to this using someone elses,s pc or laptop and reformat it clean then put the hard drive back in.

In reply to a post by john2007:

.... In my limited experience getting to laptop internals is fiddly, time-consuming, and error prone. If you haven't done it before I reckon I'd set aside 4-6 hours to disassemble/reassemble a laptop to find the cmos battery. I'd only try it on a laptop I was going to junk.....

The HD password cannot be unlocked without certain software and an in-depth knowledge of how to use it. Most BIOS passwords cannot be removed by removing the battery as these are written to a seperate chip on the motherboard. Some very few laptops have DIP/jumper switches which when correctly set will remove the password but I would think that these are now largely obsolete.

As it's for recycling, the hard drive could simply be removed and kept. They're always useful in a 2.5" caddy as unlike their larger counterparts, they'll easily slip into a pocket.

Edited by Deadbeat (Thu 21-Jun-12 17:21:33)

Your actions make a lot more sense once we know the machine is for scrap and not for reuse.

What you've done so far is more than enough to stop prying eyes stealing your data.

Mind you if it's working then selling it on eBay is more environmentally friendly than recycling it.