WINDOWS VISTA PROBLEM-PLEASE HELP

kincaid

Hi All,

I am selling my laptop that comes installed with windows vista.
The problem is I can not clear the history and login passwords on it...
I have tried everything from internet options etc till booting it up in safe mode and trying it there but still will not clear them,
Any advice at all appreciated

Thanks

Marsden

If your selling it you should completely format your hard drive. This will permanently erase all your stored and deleted data.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9ehGfaOHSM

kincaid

Thanks but purchased the laptop with vista already installed on it but do not have the disk

areyawell

Might be an option in the start menu to make a system restore disc. Usually have to burn your own these days. What browser can't you clear the history on?

kincaid

using Mozilla Firefox

Julez

Depending on the brand some laptops have the ability to let you return it to a factory state, erasing all your profiles and data.

Marsden

What make and model is it? I'd definitely do a format of your hard drive, otherwise all your information even the stuff you've deleted is still on your disk.

kincaid

its a hp compaq 6715b

kincaid

a friend of mine needs a lend of it for a few days while hers is being repaired..
After this im selling it as i need a faster machine

Marsden

I think with Compaqs if you press F10 during boot up you'll get the boot screen and you will be able to find a 'recovery' solution. It probably has a destructive and non-destructive recovery. Destructive will bring it right back to its factory settings.

kincaid

Marsden wrote: »

I think with Compaqs if you press F10 during boot up you'll get the boot screen and you will be able to find a 'recovery' solution. It probably has a destructive and non-destructive recovery. Destructive will bring it right back to its factory settings.

yes took me to the boot screen but do not see any recovery solution or the likes there

mark renton

Make sure you are selecting the option to clear forms on ff

Marsden

Have a read

http://www.ehow.com/how_6016448_boot-recovery-partition-compaq-6715b.html

areyawell

Disable all addons and make sure all the boxes are ticked to clear the history
Browsing History
Cookies
Active Logins
Download History
Form & search History
Saved Passwords
Site preferences
Offline website Data

Ibiliss

if u have a legit cdkey microsoft doesn't really care where u get the install disk just download a vista ISO from the net and burn it to a cd or dvd

kincaid

Marsden wrote: »

Have a read

http://www.ehow.com/how_6016448_boot-recovery-partition-compaq-6715b.html

Thanks tried this by pressing f11 etc but goes straight to windows vista each time

kincaid

areyawell wrote: »

Disable all addons and make sure all the boxes are ticked to clear the history
Browsing History
Cookies
Active Logins
Download History
Form & search History
Saved Passwords
Site preferences
Offline website Data

thanks but tried this before i posted on here but didnt work either

Capt'n Midnight

Marsden wrote: »

If your selling it you should completely format your hard drive. This will permanently erase all your stored and deleted data.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9ehGfaOHSM

unless it's a long format taking a long time (at least an hour or two) then it won't have erased your data and quite a lot could be recovered using something like photorec


handiest way is to make the disk images / do a factory restore from recovery partition and then wipe free space with something like eraser or sdelete


just to be clear it's well nigh impossible to remove old personal data from a windows install if only because people are constantly discovering new places that hold data in files / registry all the time


you could create a new user profile and delete the old one, run ccleaner , delete the pagefile and hibernate file temporarially and then scrub the free space - but you are relying heavily that there are no design holes in any of the apps used.

Fysh

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

unless it's a long format taking a long time (at least an hour or two) then it won't have erased your data and quite a lot could be recovered using something like photorec


handiest way is to make the disk images / do a factory restore from recovery partition and then wipe free space with something like eraser or sdelete


just to be clear it's well nigh impossible to remove old personal data from a windows install if only because people are constantly discovering new places that hold data in files / registry all the time


you could create a new user profile and delete the old one, run ccleaner , delete the pagefile and hibernate file temporarially and then scrub the free space - but you are relying heavily that there are no design holes in any of the apps used.

Personally, any time I'm doing a reinstall where I want to be sure user data has been purged, I use a GParted CD and run a 7-pass shred across it and reinstall on top of that. Yes, it's feasible that someone can disassemble the drive and use an AFM or STM to painstakingly reassemble data from the original installation - but if you're up against someone with that equipment and expertise available, you're probably screwed anyway.

Best bet is to borrow a Vista disc off someone, scrub the disk and reinstall from the Vista disc, IMO.

Capt'n Midnight

Fysh wrote: »

I use a GParted CD and run a 7-pass shred across it and reinstall on top of that. Yes, it's feasible that someone can disassemble the drive and use an AFM or STM to painstakingly reassemble data from the original installation - but if you're up against someone with that equipment and expertise available, you're probably screwed anyway.

AFM/STM is very unlikely to work, it's a theoretical attack, I'd be more worried about next generation heads being able to read between the tracks on older hard drives.

by shred do you mean using nwipe on that CD (a fork of Dban but with better hardware support) ?


Oh yeah - does any one have a link to that app that exports currently installed drivers to make life easier for reinstalling ?

Ibiliss

well if your really that worried about your data buy a replacement hd of ebay install it and then download or borrow a Vista disc off someone like Fysh suggested and install on the new hd

Fysh

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

AFM/STM is very unlikely to work, it's a theoretical attack, I'd be more worried about next generation heads being able to read between the tracks on older hard drives.

by shred do you mean using nwipe on that CD (a fork of Dban but with better hardware support) ?

Nope, I mean using the terminal in Gparted bootable disc to invoke a 7 pass shred on the entire device (Eg shred -n 7 /dev/hda). No use whatsoever on SSDs but for stuff that relies on either recovering fragments of files from the filesystem or for attempting to recover from magnetic memory effects it's reasonably good.

There's some interesting though quite scary documentation regarding what the military regard as effective data destruction techniques, which means that if you're paranoid enough only taking a lump hammer to your hard drive platters and then dropping the bits into a furnace could be considered secure. As of 2007, for example, the US Defence Security Service no longer considers overwriting to be an acceptable data erasure technique and considers only use of approved degaussers to be suitable. See Wikipedia and also the document itself. I'm not sure if it's AFM/STM type techniques or something else they worry about, but if they consider overwriting to be an unsuitable technique for magnetic media, it's cause for concern.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Oh yeah - does any one have a link to that app that exports currently installed drivers to make life easier for reinstalling ?

I'm very much interested in this, but it's worth noting that the Acronis Universal Restore Plus Pack lets anyone who's already using Acronis TrueImage recover their install to dissimilar hardware. I've started using this in work because with a bunch of legacy installs which aren't documented and which are using, at this point, 10+ year old hardware, it is a godsend. (It's not expensive either - scan.co.uk are selling digital licence keys for Acronis TrueImage 2013 for about £15, and the plus pack addons cost around the same again...)

Capt'n Midnight

TBH the US military have a budget of a trillion dollars a year (if you include TSA/NSA etc.) and the possible consequences of leaking certain data is so great that destruction is cheap insurance against vulnerabilities in the hardware or protocol



SSD wiping is very simple - you just create a large file on an empty partition , sdelete will do this, no need for multiple passes either.

have a look at nwipe - you can select which partition to wipe , you may have to press space bar or F10 or something

and if you are starting to get paranoid then split your multiple passes between different products http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml - but this will wipe the entire disk including recovery partition


haven't checked these driver exporters
http://sourceforge.net/projects/drvback/ - Open Source
http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/ - Trial
http://www.ghacks.net/2011/09/26/backing-up-and-restoring-windows-drivers/ - Manually copy folders

slimjimmc

OP,

I'd never risk passing on any computer unless it has been reformatted and even wiped as other posters have mentioned.

Try creating Recovery Media for your notebook. CD/DVD are preferred but you could try a USB stick using the following procedure instead :
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=ec&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=3368540&prodTypeId=321957&objectID=c01890478

Note: if your notebook originally came with XP and was later upgraded to Vista then the Recovery discs will only restore the system back to XP and you'll have to upgrade again.

The following link shows how to reinstall your notebook back to factory settings if you have a recovery partition or recovery discs:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00809678


If you can't create your own Recovery media then you may be able to purchase Recovery discs directly from HP
See http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bph07143


Alternatively you could just scrub the disc and let the buyer order the recovery disc himself.