How do i restore my Studio to factory default AND erasing the primary disk?

[tracerit]

There's a 10GB partition that will return the Studio to factory defaults, but i onlyi know how to do this through Windows. What I want to do is to run a hard drive erase program (it's called DBAN) during boot.

[Terbo]

You can wipe your computer through the Vista install disk, you don't need any other program. Just boot to the Vista disk and when it asks you which partition to install to, delete all the partitions and create a new one.

It seems complicated but just give it a try, its really VERY easy.

[tracerit]

that doesn't do a secure wipe of all my information though. that's what DBAN does.

[karan1003]

There's a 10GB partition that will return the Studio to factory defaults, but i onlyi know how to do this through Windows. What I want to do is to run a hard drive erase program (it's called DBAN) during boot.

Did you load it into a CD or USB drive and then boot off of that? After doing that and starting the program you can use its interactive mode to clear whatever partitions you want - I'm assuming that since you want to restore it to factory default you won't want to get rid of that last 10GB partition. then install the OS from the CD, and you should be good to go.