Factory Resetting a Laptop

[johkell]

Hi,
I am wondering can anyone provide a definitive answer to how I can eradicate every shred of history, data, etc, off a Lenovo G580 Windows 8 laptop before selling it on.

I have tried the following so far with only partial success. (I think)

I have reset the laptop via the hidden partition. I have used one key recovery. I have used the option via PC settings>General>Remove everything and Reinstall windows and I have used a recovery USB. (All on separate occasions)

Thinking that this would suffice, you can imagine my surprise when , having installed chrome that it displayed the entire search history. Surely this should also have been deleted during one or all of the processes mentioned???
Is there something I have done in error or omitted at some stage during one of these processes?

A definitive answer to this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[USAFRet]

Do you use a Microsoft account to log on, or a local account?

If a MS account, your browsing history is saved in the MS cloud.

 

[johkell]

Do you use a Microsoft account to log on, or a local account?

If a MS account, your browsing history is saved in the MS cloud.

*Groan* Forgot about that... Even after knowing that the pics were still there as they were synced to the SkyDrive cloud.
So am I good to be or do I have to de-authorize the account from the laptop???

 

[USAFRet]

Do you use a Microsoft account to log on, or a local account?

If a MS account, your browsing history is saved in the MS cloud.

*Groan* Forgot about that... Even after knowing that the pics were still there as they were synced to the SkyDrive cloud.
So am I good to be or do I have to de-authorize the account from the laptop???

Try it one more time, but this time just create a local account during the process. That way there is no possibility of any of your data ever touching the laptop.

Give the new owner that username and password, and he can do what he likes.

 

[johkell]

Do you use a Microsoft account to log on, or a local account?

If a MS account, your browsing history is saved in the MS cloud.

*Groan* Forgot about that... Even after knowing that the pics were still there as they were synced to the SkyDrive cloud.
So am I good to be or do I have to de-authorize the account from the laptop???

Try it one more time, but this time just create a local account during the process. That way there is no possibility of any of your data ever touching the laptop.

Give the new owner that username and password, and he can do what he likes.

Will do..... will revert in due course if it doesn't resolve the issue.

If it does, thanks for the assistance, much respect..

Have a nice day!!!

 

[Unolocogringo]

When you delete data on a hard drive it is not really deleted. Just the pointer to what it is and where it is located is deleted. The data is still there and can be recovered by recovery software.
To get rid of the data on the hard drive you need to write over everything on the drive with other data. To ensure everything is erased, you need to write over the drive 7 times with Os on the first pass and 1s on the second pass Os on the third and 1s on the 4th etc...

http/www.secure-eraser.com/
free for home use, just run it several times if you have important data you need to be sure is erased.