Windows 10 laptop not wiping.

[NomboCombo]

I broke the screen of my laptop so I connected it to a monitor with a cable. My laptop has a ton of junk on it and I want to wipe it clean and I have tried. But every single time I try it starts to work, but then the monitor stops receiving the signal from my laptop. It sits like that for about 7-9 hours and I think it's done so I turn off my laptop and turn it back on and nothing is changed. Please help me. Am I not giving it enough time? I think that 8 hours is quite a bit.

 

[Grizzly]

How do you try to wipe your computer??
Did you start from a CD?DVD or Flash drive?
Do you try to wipe from within your system (means that Windows is up and running)?
What kind of Laptop do you have??

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

My laptop has a ton of junk on it and I want to wipe it clean

Boot from the Windows 10 installation media.
When the installation screen comes up, hold the Shift key on your keyboard and strike the F10 key
That should launch a Command Prompt and in the Command Prompt windows type
diskpart
hit enter, then type
list disk
hit enter
assuming only one physical disk you'll likely only see "Disk 0" it is absolutely critical that you select the proper disk as the following will completely wipe which ever you choose
next type
select disk 0 (again assuming that "disk 0" (zero) is the optimal target for cleaning
hit enter, then type
clean
hit enter

That'll do it, the entire disk will then be unallocated (no data, no partition, nothing) and you can then use that unallocated space as a target for your OS install or whatever your future intentions are for the use of that disk.

 

[Regedit32]

Hi NomboCombo,

Welcome to the Forum.


Would you mind clarifying what you meant by 'Wiping'.

Are you attempting to format the laptop's hard drive so you can install a clean copy of Windows 10?

If yes, what steps are you doing to format it?


On a side not, recently I took an older HP Desktop that originally came preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium edition.

I wanted to do a clean install of Windows 10, which I had upgraded to during Microsoft's Free Upgrade Offer period.

To do this I did the following:

1. I started the Desktop and press the function key linked to HP Recovery Partition, then ran that Recovery to restore the Desktop to the condition it was in when it left the Manufacturer's store. (i.e., It removed all files on the hard drive and installed Windows 7 Home Premium edition, and other HP software that came bundled with the Windows 7 OEM.
2. After succeeding in doing this, I then manually uninstalled the bloatware (i.e. the additional software and games that came with this computer that I did not want to use). I did that by opening the Control Panel and running Programs & Features, then selecting items I had no use for and uninstalling them.
3. I then restarted the Desktop and signed-in. After signing-in I ran Disk Management, selected the C partition, as this was where Windows 7 was installed, and formatted it to an NTFS partition.
4. I inserted a DVD I had creating using Microsoft's Media Creation tool, which contained a Windows 10 Home ISO, then shutdown and restarted the computer. During the restart, when prompted, I tapped 'any key' to forced the computer to boot from that DVD. After a few minutes I was greeted by a Welcome screen where I clicked the Next button, and from there I selected to install Windows 10 Home edition.
5. During this installation, it asked for a password, and I clicked 'I do not have one' (or words to that effect), and it continued installing. Once it was installed, I had to run Windows update to get the latest version of Windows 10 Home, and during this process the Microsoft Servers detected my system and recognized it as a computer that had a digital license for Windows 10 Home edition, and as a result it was Activated for use and I was not prompted to enter a license again.

• On reflection I probably could have ignored step 2, given I formatted the partition in step 3, but I thought I'd share this in case this is what you are trying to do with your laptop. The rationale behind Step 2 though, was I knew when upgrading to Windows 10, that it would create a recovery partition to roll back to Windows 7, so I wanted to minimize the size of that roll back partition, by reducing unwanted software, and I also wanted the option to roll back to windows 7 and not have the hassle of having to uninstall all the junk programs again too.

 

[NomboCombo]

How do you try to wipe your computer??
Did you start from a CD?DVD or Flash drive?
Do you try to wipe from within your system (means that Windows is up and running)?
What kind of Laptop do you have??

I go into the settings and there was a button that looks like a recycling symbol but with only two arrows. In there it allows me to wipe my computer by deleting everything or just the files. I chose to wipe just the files. Then it starts wiping and after a few minutes the monitor just says no signal. Now it's sat there like that for hours. I have tried turning it on and off but it's still stuck at no signal.

 

[Grizzly]

Alright, you just reset the computer, that is not wiping.
Wiping means formatting the hard drive so nothing will be left, just an empty drive. This can be done as mentioned before by trouble and regedit32.
resetting the pc also means that it does not know about the external monitor so you have to tell him that as by default it uses the (cracked) screen of yours....