Wiping an XP device before donating to charity

BenEadir · 24-10-2011 9:20am #1

Hi all,

I've an old Dell laptop running XP which a local charity wants to use. I've taken anything I wanted off it already but would like to do a full wipe of all personal data and any remaining/hidden documents/photo's etc to make sure no personal details remain on it before I hand it over.

Is there an app I can download and install which will do the necessary?

Ben

JohnnyTodd · 24-10-2011 9:23am

Why not do a complete rebuild? Only takes an hour or so?

BenEadir · 24-10-2011 10:20am

Thanks Bedlam but DBsN is too technical for me to do. I looked up a tutorial and it's just beyond my competency. I don't even know how to create a bootable CD or to get the machine to boot into the CD drive.

JohnnyTodd - Me rebuilding anything is never going to happen. It's just not my thing.

I'll just have to try and manually identify all folders with personal data, delete them and keep my fingers crossed nothing comes back to bite me.

Cheers guys,

Ben

cookie1977 · 24-10-2011 10:22am

Reinstall windows xp and then run cipher:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315672

so the command for c drive would be:
cipher /w:c:

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/using-cipherexe.html

JohnnyTodd · 24-10-2011 10:23am

BenEadir wrote: »

Thanks Bedlam but DBsN is too technical for me to do. I looked up a tutorial and it's just beyond my competency. I don't even know how to create a bootable CD or to get the machine to boot into the CD drive.

JohnnyTodd - Me rebuilding anything is never going to happen. It's just not my thing.

I'll just have to try and manually identify all folders with personal data, delete them and keep my fingers crossed nothing comes back to bite me.

Cheers guys,

Ben

I really wouldnt do that, You might regret it. Endless tutorials on how to rebuild an XP machine online. I recommend you take 20 minutes of your time, source an XP disc and rebuild...

listermint · 24-10-2011 10:28am

BenEadir wrote: »

Thanks Bedlam but DBsN is too technical for me to do. I looked up a tutorial and it's just beyond my competency. I don't even know how to create a bootable CD or to get the machine to boot into the CD drive.

JohnnyTodd - Me rebuilding anything is never going to happen. It's just not my thing.

I'll just have to try and manually identify all folders with personal data, delete them and keep my fingers crossed nothing comes back to bite me.

Cheers guys,

Ben

Never a good idea,

creating bootable CD and modifying boot drives are very basic items to do. If you can use a smartphone you can pretty much do this.

As stated just look up the endless tutorials online and further your knowledge. Its worth it.

Fysh · 24-10-2011 10:56am

Personally i'd go for running Shred (accessible from the terminal in tools like the Gparted live disc) a few times to eliminate traces of old files, then do a clean install. This is easier if you have OEM media that will prompt the new owner to go through the setup process on next boot.

Capt'n Midnight · 24-10-2011 6:19pm

if you have a floppy disk or an old usb key you can use this
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/dban-1.0.7/

running erase tools inside windows won't remove data, (unless you have already formatted the disk and reinstalled windows )

You can't manually clean all personal data out of windows, backup exec used to store the backup users password in a temp file - who knows what else might be lying around.

the windows XP cd should allow you to format the drive , this will NOT erase data

Wiping an XP device before donating to charity

Comments