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| Thread ID: 106376 | 2010-01-06 04:47:00 | Prepare computer for sale? | Hopper (14491) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 846293 | 2010-01-06 04:47:00 | I'm ready to sell an old XP desktop, what's the best way to wipe all personal data, boot the OS install and start again? TIA:badpc: |
Hopper (14491) | ||
| 846294 | 2010-01-06 05:40:00 | Reinstall xp, not forgetting to reinstall all motherboard and hardware drivers, alternately just remove all data from personal folders (my docs/pics/music etc), or go into user accounts, make a new user/administrator and delete the original one (not sure if that'll work tho :)) |
feersumendjinn (64) | ||
| 846295 | 2010-01-06 05:41:00 | May wanna look into a wiping software. They can be recoverable if you do a simple delete. | Nomad (952) | ||
| 846296 | 2010-01-06 06:40:00 | Use dban, a disk wiping utility to clear your hard drive before reinstalling Windows. | FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 846297 | 2010-01-06 08:41:00 | recovering data after a format isn't cheap and easy, so i doubt anyone would bother :p just reinstall windows and drivers as per above. |
pablo d (15490) | ||
| 846298 | 2010-01-06 08:50:00 | If you want to be sure take the advice from FoxyMX. | Sweep (90) | ||
| 846299 | 2010-01-06 09:00:00 | Best way is as per what foxy suggested - there are many free programs these days that take very little skill to recover data even from a formatted drive. | wainuitech (129) | ||
| 846300 | 2010-01-06 09:03:00 | Dban looks the business, I will investigate further. Thanks for the replies! |
Hopper (14491) | ||
| 846301 | 2010-01-06 09:22:00 | recovering data after a format isn't cheap and easy, so i doubt anyone would bother :p I feel you have over estimated the cost/ease of data recovery. I have done a security project on this, I have recovered about 1TB of data from old hard drives off trademe, using free tools, only an hour per drive. many drives purchased at $5 or $10 each. found emails, photos, web history, legal documents. passwords. I even found a chain of emails relating to costs of running one of NZ's most well known companies.... a format wont stop even basic data recovery. the re-install of windows will trash a good chunck of the drive. but the other chunk will still have data that can be recovered. DBAN and then a re-install is the best answer. |
robsonde (120) | ||
| 846302 | 2010-01-06 11:29:00 | en.wikipedia.org The specific US Military standard which I cant find at the moment used to specify: 7 times, delete all partitions, recreate partition, and write full with multiple random caracters. before allowing usage of drive in another Millitary Dept. all drives are destroyed when computers are disposed off by the US Military. www.whitecanyon.com www.sharewareconnection.com are free or limited free and claim to conform to us military std. If you use them in the 7 x 7 metheod there should be no problem If your really concerned take the paranoid us example and destroy it. This is why you see so many laptops today 4 sale with NO Hdd. Most of the dell and hp "Refurbished" Laptops are X US Govt, refurbished by adding a NEW hard drive and testing them. |
angry (15305) | ||
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