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Our teacher gave us 2 used computers and asked us to format them and we did. Then we installed Windows 10 on both. Now he comes and says "I don't want any OS on them". Of course, when a computer is just manufactured, it has no OS. He wants us to revert the computer to that state, to disassemble and reassemble its parts, and install any OS on it. But it seems to me that the first thing any OS is programmed to do is not allow the user to delete it when there are no installed operating systems on the computer. It seems the needed result can't be achieved. Or is it? I don't know. Since we will disassemble it anyway, I might learn how to reset everything using the hardware. So can you do that in any way (even using hardware; maybe unplug or change some cables)?
EDIT
Regardless of the context is, I have Win 10 on 2 computers each, and I want to remove it and revert the computer to the "dead box" state
41Boot from another device (linux boot disk, windows disk), delete all the partitions off the drive. Done? – Jonno – 2017-05-04T08:41:24.200
I don't understand that very well. Can you expand an answer – TGamer – 2017-05-04T08:46:14.417
39"Of course, when a computer is just manufactured, it has no OS." -- actually it probably does have an OS; at Dell-like scales, the OS is likely written to the disk before the disk is put in the computer. They might even get the disks from (e.g.) Seagate with their OS image already installed. – Roger Lipscombe – 2017-05-04T11:28:03.343
45Why do you think that an OS would be programmed to not allow itself to be deleted? – Mokubai – 2017-05-04T11:31:05.837
7even manufacturers that ship PCs "without OS" generally install freedos on it so you can test it. – satibel – 2017-05-04T11:44:55.790
5"But it seems to me that the first thing any OS is programmed to do is not allow the user to delete it..." Most OS's have a disk formatting utility. Reformat the OS disk partition, and you just deleted the OS! Of course you will probably have to answer "yes" to a few "are you sure you really want to do this" messages - it's hard to do it by accident.. – alephzero – 2017-05-04T11:45:22.357
5@alephzero It's actually hard to understand what the OP is asking because if you look at his first line he says he's already formatted it and then installed the OS himself. That would suggest that the OP already knows how to use the OS (or another OS) to format the drive. – Jon Bentley – 2017-05-04T14:04:12.500
40"we [formatted them]. Then we installed Windows 10 on both." What do you think was on them between those actions? – Kevin – 2017-05-04T15:21:27.993
6"He wants us to revert the computer to that state, to disassemble and reassemble its parts, and install any OS on it." - You already did that per your description, and you indicated, your teacher indicated that wasn't the assignment. So that begs the question if you understand what is being asked of you. Your question is not clear. – Ramhound – 2017-05-04T17:47:42.807
2BTW: good exercise from your teacher... – eckes – 2017-05-04T21:33:57.930
@Mokubai - Because I think to stop the user from getting the computer into the dead box state. looks i'm wrong anyway – TGamer – 2017-05-05T05:04:37.040
@Kevin - They had some Ubuntu we don't know and the other had windows 7. What's with that? I just said I want to get of the windows I installed without installing a new one. – TGamer – 2017-05-05T05:07:25.480
@Ramhound - It looks obvious to me. We installed Win 10 and then he said we don't want any OS on the device. We don't know Ubuntu so we installed Win 10 to just turn it on. We installed that on the other one for no specific reason. We didn't know that we're not meant to that. – TGamer – 2017-05-05T05:09:49.513
6@TGamer It's still not clear what the problem is. You opened your question by saying you formatted the drive, so that means you already know how to wipe it and remove the OS. What is it that you don't know how to do? – Jon Bentley – 2017-05-05T09:22:35.030
3@TGamer Still sounds like your confused by what the assignment actually is – Ramhound – 2017-05-05T11:48:32.147
1Does superuser have a [homework] tag? – JPhi1618 – 2017-05-05T18:33:41.263