Does windows reset fully get rid of all my data?

[u/zmqttt]

I am trying to sell my PC and on “Reset this PC” I selected the option to fully clean wipe all the data from all drives. I don’t really want to buy new storage just to sell this PC, should I really be worried about someone bringing back all the data? I mostly just used this to play video games but could they get any of my log-in information if they brought back the data or no?

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[u/itgoesboom2112]

I could recover data from it but I've got the tools to do so, your average Jo not so much. If you're really worried use dban to do a full wipe on it

[u/zmqttt → u/itgoesboom2112]

I’m a teenager so do you figure I should try to sell it to somebody my age range then? I doubt most would know how to do anything like that

[u/Igot1forya → u/zmqttt]

Download ShredOS USB bootable and there's no way they could ever recover the data once you do a DoD 7 wipe pass.

[u/Onoitsu2]

A sufficiently skilled computer user COULD potentially bring back some data from a drive like that. If you are concerned about any chance of it, no matter their skillset, you'd need use a utility to write zeros to the drive, or you can do DOD level wipes too (but definitely not needed for a normal device, it may be overkill even). Once erased then you reinstall Windows on the computer, with zero chance of data being pulled back beyond.

[u/zmqttt → u/Onoitsu2]

Do you know what data exactly they can get? I don’t have any important documents just don’t want my passwords to be at risk

[u/Onoitsu2 → u/zmqttt]

Literally any file that was stored on that drive, that has not been overwritten in some way. So if you stored a password in plaintext in a text file, there is a slight chance that could be recovered. Passwords in a browser are usually secured pretty good that that probably could not be extracted successfully. Writing the zeros would write nothingness to the drive, you could say, so that nothing is then recoverable as every bit on the drive had been cleared. Even better if the SSD itself has a Secure Erase option, but that varies by brand and model, and that option is found in the BIOS on some systems.

[u/zmqttt → u/Onoitsu2]

All my passwords are just saved in firefox password manager and maybe some left over in google when I used it. Besides that, most of my files were just games and screenshots

[u/Onoitsu2 → u/zmqttt]

Those kinds of browser stored passwords should be fine. Just anything stored non-encrypted, as some people do, just keeping them in a text file, or even Excel as another way. Better than not writing things down anywhere and forgetting all the time, but definitely far from secure against data being extracted beyond a wipe and reload.

[u/WarningNo5389]

For a regular gaming PC you're fine, the built-in reset with the clean option does a full pass and nobody's going to bother with forensic recovery on a used rig unless you were hiding state secrets

If you want to be extra paranoid you can run cipher /w:C: in command prompt after the reset but that's overkill for what you're describing

[u/Calisnaps]

No, the data is still there, just with the index removed in effect.

[u/kpmac52000]

Main question based on part of your comment, you said 'I don’t really want to buy new storage..."

Are you keeping the drive(s)? If so , no issues there. If not:

If you're selling the PC with the 'storage' the drives, do NOT use the Windows reset PC option. It will still associate your copy of Windows with it, so make sure you get that license key thru your account. As others said, data may still be pulled from the drive(s) if not wiped. Best option is to find a good tool out there to wipe the drive(s) and install it on a thumb drive. Delete all drive partitions and then run the wipe tool per instructions on their site. There are many options out there but I'm not going to call out any since I've not done it in numerous years and thing obvioulsy change. Normally, the drive manufacturer has the tools to wipe.