Use this tip to clear a hard drive of personal data before donating or selling a computer.
Donating Computer: Wipe Data Without Losing Windows?
Gary from Australia writes: I have a Toshiba Satellite Laptop (Centrino) which was originally preloaded with Vista. A few years ago I upgraded to 7. I am now giving away the laptop and would like to wipe the hard drive clean. If I format the drive will I lose the operating system 7?