Factory Reset PC but RAM stayed??

[Corcheedos]

Its come to my attention that when factory reseted my PC, including my hardrive, the RAM memory was still there? If that doesn't really makes sense, i'll give an example on what happened

So I factory reseted my PC , everything gone back to square one, I reinstalled chrome. Little do I know all my history and stuff was STILL THERE!!! Theres literally no tutorial anywhere on how to get my ramsticks to factory settings, I'm trying to sell my pc

 

[SchizTech]

There are things called memory resident malware which can survive a refresh that way - but that's not what I think happened here. Depending on which reset option in Windows was used the HDD may not have been formatted, and some files related to the past installation of Chrome may have been retained. It's also possible if you sign into Chrome with your Google account, that information was retained in the cloud (on Google's servers).

What version of Windows are you running, and what reset option did you use? If you sign into Chrome, look into the settings to configure what information you want Chrome to remember.

 

[Corcheedos]

There are things called memory resident malware which can survive a refresh that way - but that's not what I think happened here. Depending on which reset option in Windows was used the HDD may not have been formatted, and some files related to the past installation of Chrome may have been retained. It's also possible if you sign into Chrome with your Google account, that information was retained in the cloud (on Google's servers).

What version of Windows are you running, and what reset option did you use? If you sign into Chrome, look into the settings to configure what information you want Chrome to remember.

I used the formatting option where everything is wiped. Please note I built my PC, so I even have to reinstall windows aswell when doing this. No I wasnt signed on either, and windows 7

 

[Karadjgne]

Whenever you shut down a pc, all the 'memory' in the ram is saved to the C: drive and becomes empty. This is partially what takes windows so long to close. When you boot up Windows, all that 'memory' is returned to the ram (fastboot) or regular boot adds what's in the startup services etc. In no way does the ram retain anything, it's dead silicon, in any other mode but hibernation.
So, what you are experiencing is whats downloaded on an up link to Chrome when you log in, it's saved to your Chrome settings on the server, not your pc. If you logged in from a different pc, you'll get all your Chrome 'memory' etc.

A factory reset deletes everything that wasn't on the pc at the original install. On the hdd is a separate b: partition containing all the factory CAB files, as setup by the factory. This will include any and all factory bloatware. But nothing you've personally added via Internet or CD.

Download Revo Uninstaller and have it aggressively uninstall Chrome, it'll search the registry and delete anything and everything Chrome related. Let the buyer use I.E. Use 'set user default programs' to make that happen.

 

[SchizTech]

Well if it's Windows 7 than it doesn't have those "reset" or "refresh" options built in that 8 and above have. You would have had to use a disk or flash drive, but are you completely sure when you got to the partition screen you deleted the old partitions? If you installed on top of the old Windows partition without formatting it, this could have happened. IN the C: drive do you see a Windows (old) folder as well as the Windows folder? That would be a smoking gun for the scenario I described.

IF that happened, install again and make sure to wipe the drive clean before letting it continue.

To go even further: if you want to make sure even data recovery programs won't be able to do a deep scan and find your old stuff use a tool like DBAN to securely wipe the drive before re-installing (this can take quite a while, so leave it running overnight)

 

[Corcheedos]

Whenever you shut down a pc, all the 'memory' in the ram is saved to the C: drive and becomes empty. This is partially what takes windows so long to close. When you boot up Windows, all that 'memory' is returned to the ram (fastboot) or regular boot adds what's in the startup services etc. In no way does the ram retain anything, it's dead silicon, in any other mode but hibernation.
So, what you are experiencing is whats downloaded on an up link to Chrome when you log in, it's saved to your Chrome settings on the server, not your pc. If you logged in from a different pc, you'll get all your Chrome 'memory' etc.

A factory reset deletes everything that wasn't on the pc at the original install. On the hdd is a separate b: partition containing all the factory CAB files, as setup by the factory. This will include any and all factory bloatware. But nothing you've personally added via Internet or CD.

Download Revo Uninstaller and have it aggressively uninstall Chrome, it'll search the registry and delete anything and everything Chrome related. Let the buyer use I.E. Use 'set user default programs' to make that happen.

Alright, I will try that, thank you

 

[Corcheedos]

Well if it's Windows 7 than it doesn't have those "reset" or "refresh" options built in that 8 and above have. You would have had to use a disk or flash drive, but are you completely sure when you got to the partition screen you deleted the old partitions? If you installed on top of the old Windows partition without formatting it, this could have happened. IN the C: drive do you see a Windows (old) folder as well as the Windows folder? That would be a smoking gun for the scenario I described.

IF that happened, install again and make sure to wipe the drive clean before letting it continue.

To go even further: if you want to make sure even data recovery programs won't be able to do a deep scan and find your old stuff use a tool like DBAN to securely wipe the drive before re-installing (this can take quite a while, so leave it running overnight)

im positive i deleted the old partition and made a new one. I'll try the DBAN thing, thanks