How to wipe everything off a pc?

CyberJuice

Hey guys

i recently got a new pc and i am giving my old one to a relative..

before i give it away id like to remove any personal information from it so nobody will be able to see it, such things as old chat logs,photos, internet history and such..kinda dont want my relatives lookin at that stuff even thought its all innocent lol..

is there any way i can remove all of this stuff forever and be able to sleep at night knowing my family members are not laughing at my old photos and cringeworthy drunken msn conversations and such i have had in the past.id pretty much like to wipe everything off it so they will have a fresh new pc and can then put what they like onto it.without wiping the operating system and other needed stuff obviously

Mint Sauce

Factory reset, and re install the operating system (assuming you still have the OS disks). Will be pretty much like taking the PC from the shop and out of the box.

Edit.

Just seen you dont want to wipe the OS.

Krusader

http://www.ehow.com/video_4871985_wipe-hard-drive-except-os.html

If you have a 2nd partition without an os on it just format that one aswell

Faolchu

if you had the factory restore disk it would be your best option if you dont want to remove the OS and other apps. if you dont mind loosing everything then DBAN will wipe teh disk and you can reinstall everything.

another option might be to create a new user account for the person you're handing it over to and then delete your profile and the profile folder under c:\documents and settings\your user name. this will clear out a lot of things form your profile, but you'd still need to loog for log files for applications etc and maybe stuff stored on teh root of C:\

CyberJuice

im pretty sure i dont have the operating disk so if the operating system is wiped i would have no operating system on it, this is the reason why i need that to remain

yoyo

CyberJuice wrote: »

im pretty sure i dont have the operating disk so if the operating system is wiped i would have no operating system on it, this is the reason why i need that to remain

Sometimes there are hotkeys you need to press at boot to enter "system recovery". The Windows data resides on a hidden partition on the hard disk. What make and model is the machine so we can help further?

Nick

CyberJuice

its a dell dimension 9150, its about 5 years old

it windows xp os

FSL

You could just delete all you personal stuff and all temporary internet files. Uninstall messenger and delete anything it leaves behind. Defragment the drive using something like defraggler then use something like eraser to wipe the free space.

That way not only will you remove all traces of your data but you will leave a nice clean defragmented system.

bonzodog2

DiskManagement will tell you if the windows partition occupies the whole disk.

tricky D

FSL wrote: »

You could just delete all you personal stuff and all temporary internet files. Uninstall messenger and delete anything it leaves behind. Defragment the drive using something like defraggler then use something like eraser to wipe the free space.

That way not only will you remove all traces of your data but you will leave a nice clean defragmented system.

This is pretty much it. However, I would think wiping the free space before defragmenting might be better. CCleaner also has a Drive Wipe function with up to 35 passes available. Eraser hasn't always done the trick in my experience.

yoyo

CyberJuice wrote: »

its a dell dimension 9150, its about 5 years old

it windows xp os

To use PC Restore:
1 Turn on the computer.
During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.
If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart
the computer again.

Try this, taken form the Dell user manual

Nick

johnnybmac

Sometimes, on Dell desktops etc. you have an option to do a factory restore from a Symantec Ghost image by holding "CTRL" and then tapping "F11" at system startup.

NOTE: I have seen this option fail once or twice half way through the process because of corrupted recovery files, but it has also worked for me many times...:)

Edit: Just saw the previous post

yoyo

johnnybmac wrote: »

NOTE: I have seen this option fail once or twice half way through the process because of corrupted recovery files, but it has also worked for me many times...:)

I would suspect hard disk issues here :P :P

Nick

Ash.J.Williams

You could just set up an account for whomever is to get the pc ....make it an administrator account...and then delete all the other accounts, thus removing the majority of your personal data...then only what's left on the C:\ drive should be easlily removed???

simple but effective...

CyberJuice

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

You could just set up an account for whomever is to get the pc ....make it an administrator account...and then delete all the other accounts, thus removing the majority of your personal data...then only what's left on the C:\ drive should be easlily removed???

simple but effective...

im not really that good techinically with pcs,making new accounts,making them administrator,wiping the stuff left on c drive,i wouldnt be able to figure that out,would probly take me 5 hours lol

could anyone spell it out for me in dummie terms how i do this.

CyberJuice

To use PC Restore:
1 Turn on the computer.
During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.
If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart
the computer again.


should i give this a try and see what happens

Verres

Guys,

There is but one way to properly wipe a PC. DBAN.

Then rebuild.

Ash.J.Williams

CyberJuice wrote: »

im not really that good techinically with pcs,making new accounts,making them administrator,wiping the stuff left on c drive,i wouldnt be able to figure that out,would probly take me 5 hours lol

could anyone spell it out for me in dummie terms how i do this.

Hi this is only to save you the bother of formatting/factory restoring the pc...I would guess that a hell of a lot of your personal info is stored in your account...so by removing your account you are removing your data,,,,

If you go into control panel and go to "user Accounts"...in here look for a button "create new account" and call it for example the name of the person you are giving the pc to.



There is also a button there to "change account" it is here you ensure the account is "administrator....


then log off the pc and log back in as the new user you just created....(the new user name will be there on the log in page)

go back into "user accounts" and delete all the other accounts...


then check the c drive to ensure you have deleted all the folders you created there...

Not a prefessional job by any means but i'm quite sure you'll remove everythign you want

Ash.J.Williams

Verres wrote: »

Guys,

There is but one way to properly wipe a PC. DBAN.

Then rebuild.

I don't think the op wants to

Jimoslimos

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Hi this is only to save you the bother of formatting/factory restoring the pc...I would guess that a hell of a lot of your personal info is stored in your account...so by removing your account you are removing your data,,,,

If you go into control panel and go to "user Accounts"...in here look for a button "create new account" and call it for example the name of the person you are giving the pc to.



There is also a button there to "change account" it is here you ensure the account is "administrator....


then log off the pc and log back in as the new user you just created....(the new user name will be there on the log in page)

go back into "user accounts" and delete all the other accounts...


then check the c drive to ensure you have deleted all the folders you created there...

Not a prefessional job by any means but i'm quite sure you'll remove everythign you want

If doing this way and not DBAN + clean install, I'd still recommend using an application like ccleaner to wipe the clean space.

Also you or they probably won't need to update service packs etc doing it this way

CyberJuice

thank you for all the replies guys,i will give this a shoit and see how it goes,if i have any issues i shall report back