Trying to wipe system clean

[post_warranty_poster]

Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 5423 with Windows 8.0. I want to reinstall from scratch for security reasons. I tried to format the drive via Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> computer management -> disk management, but when I clicked on the drive, the option to format it was grayed out. I tried reinstalling my system disk with the Keep Nothing option, but I still see software packages on there from Adobe, Brother, Joomla, and some others. What should I do next to wipe it as clean as possible? THANKS for any help!

 

[noidea_77]

Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 5423 with Windows 8.0. I want to reinstall from scratch for security reasons. I tried to format the drive via Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> computer management -> disk management, but when I clicked on the drive, the option to format it was grayed out. I tried reinstalling my system disk with the Keep Nothing option, but I still see software packages on there from Adobe, Brother, Joomla, and some others. What should I do next to wipe it as clean as possible? THANKS for any help!

Uninstall the software you don't need?

 

[post_warranty_poster]

Thanks, the reason I'm trying to do a clean install is to make sure there's nothing harmful on there that I can't detect, like keyloggers etc. So just uninstalling software I can see might not help.

 

[USAFRet]

You can't format the C drive from within Windows. Thats like asking Windows to kill itself.

Boot from the Windows install disk.
Start the install
Select Advanced
Select each partition, and delete
Eventually, you'll have one large unallocated space
Windows will format and use that for the new install

 

[post_warranty_poster]

Thanks, I assume that would work--I'm just having a problem with the DVD drive.