How to format HDD, but keep restore partition?

[Sparrow_69]

My gf recently purchased a gateway pc at costco. She`s been having some issues with it, so we`ll probably be returning it. She doesn`t have any overly sensitive data on there, but I`d still like to wipe the hd. The hd has a restore partition (I can burn restore disks from that invisible partition) to do a factory-new install.

What programs can I use to specifically wipe out the rest of the hd, but keep the hidden partition? Would dban work? I`d like to return the hdd to its factory-new condition, but want to wipe the rest of the hd. Any ideas? tks for any input

 

[BartY]

You should be able to do that from within a Windows PE environment.

Alternatively, you can probably burn the restore disk, wipe the drive, then do the restore. Usually it will restore the restore partition. You will likely need to consult the documentation to confirm if that is possible.