Recovery for Resale?

[Mike02906]

I have a T510 that I'm preparing for resale. I am considering running a recovery boot to put it back to factory condition. My question: will this lose all the Windows 7 updates, including SP1? Are those still available through Windows Update?

An alternative is manually deleting everything I can find relating to my account, deleting the account, and running a disk-wiping utility on all free space.

Advice? Hints?

Thanks!
Mike

[Cigarguy]

Recovery is restoring the cloned image of the laptop when it left the factory. Recovery will bring it back to the day it left the factory. It will wipe everything on your existing drive. Windows update will work fine after recovery, just as it updated fine when first turned on after leaving the factory.

I don't typically include a HDD/SSD when selling/gifting a laptop. When I do the HDD/SSD have been secured erase by me (via Parted Magic), the a fresh copy of Windows and programs are loaded by me. That way I know that ALL of my own data and settings have been thoroughly wiped.

Do not recommend attempting to delete personal files and programs. The the very least format the HDD/SSD and reinstall Windows.

Again, ALL your data and user settings will be lost when doing any of this so save everything. Backup, backup and backup up again.

[Mike02906]

Thanks, Cigarguy. Very helpful.

I'll run recovery and use a wiping program to securely erase the empty parts of the disk.

Mike