Used a Windows 10 PC, unsure if the drive was fully erased
Used a Windows 10 PC, unsure if the drive was fully erased
I sold my old prebuilt system to free up space and start building something new. I was relieved to get rid of it and the money, but later I realized I hadn’t fully erase everything beforehand. Now I’m really worried about what happened. Last night I reset the machine, but I was under the influence, so I can’t recall the exact settings. I’m pretty sure I cleared everything, including personal files and enabled data erasure (which might take hours). The rest felt like a long wait—about 20 minutes to hit 8% and it was still a decent machine. I wasn’t there to see it finish, so I fell asleep around the 20%. When I woke up, I had to set up a new user, password, and enter my old Wi-Fi details. The home screen was blank, and only basic apps like Internet Explorer remained. If anyone knows how someone could tell which option they chose or how long the reset took, especially with these specs—Ryzen 5 1400, 1060 graphics, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD (both around 70% full)—please let me know. Thanks! No worries if this goes against rules or looks like a simple mistake.
An HDD generally needs 2 to 3 hours to recover, based on speed. There’s no other way unless you can restore the system. It’s unlikely to be a big problem—most users rely on recovery tools, and if they use the system normally for a while, most deleted data should be gone. SSDs usually handle this too, as they often trim data regularly, which can wipe out deleted information.
I'm not overly concerned about the possibility of recovering the file even after deletion, especially since it was a gift for a young son. My main worry is whether I accidentally selected keeping my files instead of removing them, leaving the files behind. Also, do you know if resetting the system would erase both drives?