Is there a way to remove everything form my hard drive except for my operating system? (Windows XP if that helps)
by 
Olero
ANSWERS: 2
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You can use one of the commercially available 'wipefile' or 'wipedisk' programs. Many are available. The safest way is to reformat the entire disk, and then reinstall the OS. If you are planning to give/sell the drive with the OS installed on it you'd be breaking copyright laws. Also, XP won't run on a dofferemt machine w/o creating a new "WPA" (Windows Product Activation) code. This requires approval from Microsoft, either by phone or electronically via the Internet with their servers. Every time Windows XP starts (boots), it checks the hardware and compares it with the existing WPA "hash" code. If it's the same, or only slightly changed (such as from replacing a drive or adding memory), it passes the test. But if it detects all new components it will "phone home" and try to get approval from Microsoft. The following is an old article but it covers the WPA basics. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,10410,00.asp
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There is a way to do exactly what you ask. It's manual and time consuming. It would require you to locate and delete all files that you created yourself (documents, music, video, etc.); uninstall all programs that did not come with Windows; remove any leftover Start Menu entries and Program Files entries; delete any leftover desktop icons (from the uninstalled programs); clear out all temporary files; clean the registry of any traces of the removed / uninstalled files / programs; defragment. That would about do it, but it would be so much faster and easier to just reformat the drive and re-install Windows clean.
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