clean pc

sohappy

hi
i'm getting rid of an old pc, is it enough to delete all documents and then empty recycle bin or can info still be retrieved, is there a programme to run so that deleted items cant be retrieved?

Ruu_Old

Dban should securely wipe any data you have on your drive.

aidan_walsh

Ruu wrote:

Dban should securely wipe any data you have on your drive.

If you want to remove everything, including the operating system. BCWipe will do the same job for all free space on the disk; i.e. delete all your files then run this, perhaps twice for extra safety.

I would suggest using DBan and then reinstalling the OS if you want to be thoroughly secure, though. Chances are you will miss something otherwise.

Bradidup

sohappy wrote:

hi
i'm getting rid of an old pc, is it enough to delete all documents and then empty recycle bin or can info still be retrieved, is there a programme to run so that deleted items cant be retrieved?

If you intend dumping your old PC and don’t want anyone to get your personal information I would recommend removing the hard drive and smashing it to bits with a lump hammer, or striking it with an arc from a welding plant. Data will still remain in the hard drive even after the recycle bin is emptied.

There was a case in Ennis a few years ago where valuable data from a solicitors office was discovered in an old hard drive taken from skip containing computers and equipment dumped from a local PC repair shop.

sohappy

what about this http://www.download.com/Zilla-Data-Nuker/3000-2092_4-10320324.html?tag=lst-0-1

zilog_jones

Bradidup wrote:

If you intend dumping your old PC and don’t want anyone to get your personal information I would recommend removing the hard drive and smashing it to bits with a lump hammer, or striking it with an arc from a welding plant.

That's overkill and a waste of a hard disk, especially if it was just some home PC that probably has nothing significant on it. If it had like super confidential corporate documents that they REALLY don't want their competitors to get a hold of then *maybe*, otherwise it's pointless destruction.

There was a case in Ennis a few years ago where valuable data from a solicitors office was discovered in an old hard drive taken from skip containing computers and equipment dumped from a local PC repair shop.

That probably happened because the files weren't deleted at all, or the disk wasn't wiped very well. When you "delete" a file in Windows, you're not really deleting it at all - you're just deleting the pointers to the file so Windows will just assume that area on the disk is free to be written to again.

Stuff like Dban will wipe the disk properly by overwriting data with random junk.

Bradidup

zilog_jones wrote:

That's overkill and a waste of a hard disk, especially if it was just some home PC that probably has nothing significant on it.
.

I only suggested that alternative if he was dumping the PC.
I would certainly dump anything less than a pentium 2, hard drive included.

zilog_jones

Yeah but it's a lot easier to recover or recycle components that haven't been destroyed by a hammer or an arc welder TBH. WEEE recylcing is free to householders (check your council for locations etc.).

Bradidup

zilog_jones wrote:

Yeah but it's a lot easier to recover or recycle components that haven't been destroyed by a hammer or an arc welder TBH. WEEE recylcing is free to householders (check your council for locations etc.).

Must remember that one.