Clean w/o Install - Only OS to Remain

thx zbook - however, the op is edited to mean we want to leave the OS as is.

MourningStar said:

I have been asked to help, and am clueless. I've been given a working laptop and a tower to prepare for a yard sale and if not sold to donate to Salvation Army. It is desired to wipe the drives and leave only the OS. No way to find OS recovery discs so install not possible, must leave OS unaffected. How to do?
(hopefully a tutorial?)

-thx

What to do before selling your old PC | Windows Central Reset the PC as shown at end

steve108 said:

What to do before selling your old PC | Windows Central Reset the PC as shown at end

Don't know why but that does not work - I get "There was a problem resetting this PC" dialogue and a 'close' option . I did find this (OPTION 4) and do you think it will do what I am wanting? :

403 Forbidden <---- I have no idea why this link displays like that. here it is slightly altered …

///https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ways-factory-reset-windows-computer////

MourningStar said:

Don't know why but that does not work - I get "There was a problem resetting this PC" dialogue and a 'close' option . I did find this (OPTION 4) and do you think it will do what I am wanting? :

403 Forbidden

Yes

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If that doesn't work, maybe you just have to download the Media Creation Tool and reinstall windows https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...d/windows10ISO

What about resetting: How to reset windows 10
And perhaps using option 2 in the tutorial above: Remove everything.

Damun said:

What about resetting: How to reset windows 10
And perhaps using option 2 in the tutorial above: Remove everything.

this appears to use the same steps as the above link I found

steve108 said:

Yes

thx - hopefully this will not use the same code as the one via the W10 interface

MourningStar said:

this appears to use the same steps as the above link I found

Yes. Sorry, didn't look at the link before i posted.
It's the same as the "Erase everything" method in the link by @steve108 .

In case a reset remove files displays an error code you can custom install or clean install:
Custom Install Windows 10
Clean Install Windows 10

For custom install it will produce windows.old (all of you files).
This can be saved or discarded.