How to wipe all drives

[hypetech]

hello, i am selling my PC and am wondering how to wipe both my HDD and SSD and cleanly install windows on my SSD. I currently have windows installed on my SSD with some other files, but after deleting all files on the HDD, which I am currently of which I am currently in the process, I would lke to have the operating system installed on windows 10. Thanks in advance!! - Karmen Elektra

 

[Colif]

Are you selling the Windows 10 licence along with the PC?

If you are, look in settings/update & security/activation
If next to activation it says Windows is activated with a digital license then your licence is currently tied to the motherboard. This is the preferred outcome as after you wipe win 10, at least it will be activated for new owner

If it says Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account, then your license is actually linked to your Microsoft account. To fix this, go here - https://account.microsoft.com/ - and login to your account. Under devices, click manage
Under more options, click Remove PC.
this will link license back to the motherboard

If you aren't, go to same settings menu and see what it says. If your license is still tied to your motherboard, you can create a Microsoft account if you don't have one now by clicking this link - https://account.microsoft.com/ - and then clicking add an account on activation page

If you want to wipe hdd, go to command prompt (admin)
type diskpart and press enter
type list disk and press enter
this shows all drives available, DVD/USB and hdd, make note of hdd number
type Select disk X - where X is the number of the hdd you want to wipe, change X to that number and press enter
once the drive you want to install on is chosen, type Clean

As for win 10, I would do a full reset of the hdd, it will wipe all user info and leave win 10 inn the Out of the box set up.
go to settings/update & security/recovery
under reset this PC click Get started
choose remove all/everything
PC will restart and reset win 10 removing everything that isn't default to windows itself

note - reset only touches C drive so if you have other partitions on ssd with data in them, you might need to format those partitions to remove info.