Wiping an old laptop before resale??

subscriber

I have a really old dell laptop which ill be offloading soon but there is still quiet a lot of stored files on it from over the years. It's running on vista home premium.

Is there any way of completely wiping the drive before sale without having to reinstall drivers and the operating system?

Wanna be safe as there was lots of business accounts on some of the MS stuff over the years.

Digital Solitude

Filling it with junk files, wiping it, filling it with junk files and wiping again ought to do it. Maxing the storage capacity and reinstalling windows is probably a good idea though

bonzodog2

Create a new admin account. Log in to it. Delete all other accounts. Get Ccleaner, run it. Delete old restore points from ccleaner. Do wipe-free-space from ccleaner

T-Bird

Unless you can get a software that will 00 overwrite every bit of written data on disc, your not going to do it. Most wipers just delete the file allocation table (index), but leave rest of data there. CCleaner may well work, try using something like get data back afterwards to see if it can find anything.

If you want to be safe..

Better to Create Recovery Disks...

Then download burn and run DBan and nuke the drive..

Reinstall from recovery disks..

Alternatively you can use ccleaner as above, though Bleachbit is better for removing the temp files and logs that accumulate over time also it wipes over free space also....

edanto

subscriber wrote: »

Is there any way of completely wiping the drive before sale without having to reinstall drivers and the operating system?

No, there is no way to do that.

**ASSUMING YOU HAVE THE OPERATING SYSTEM INSTALLATION DISCS**

DBAN is the best and easiest way to wipe the drive, just boot from a DBAN CD and let it do several passes. I wouldn't bother re-installing the OS for sale, would simply demo the laptop using a Mint/Ubunto live CD and let the new owner decide on their favourite OS. Provide the original OS installation discs and key.

Asmooh

IF you want to be safe, swap the harddisk! otherwise people can always look back your data.

riclad

My sony and toshiba laptops have windows 7 restore,option,
from a hidden partition on the hardrive,
eg i restored windows from the drive ,
IT Reinstalls windows of and all programs ,
like as if you just bought laptop yesterday ,
eg there,s no user data on drive ,
IT formats drive c,erases all user data .
erase the temporary internet cache folder contents ,
use ccleaner .
try and log in to your email accounts and bank account to make sure
theres no auto login in the browsers .
uninstall all browsers apart from internet explorer .
open browser settings,
delete ALL history ,
all logins passwords .
post here you info,
eg laptop is sony 540ht vaio .

There maybe a menu in start programs ,
restore reinstall windows os ,
it,ll be in sony programs, or brand name of laptop programs menu,
in windows,start,programs , etc
name of laptop brand programs menu,
in start programs.
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/h/hiddpart.htm

some laptops are press del AND f12 or DEL and f5 function key 5 to acess windows os reinstall , restore menu ,
after you turn on laptop ,
before windhttp://ccm.net/forum/affich-535732-restoring-toshiba-laptop-to-factory-settings

google restore reinstall windows to factory settings , xx eg your laptop brand here

Google restore reinstall windows 7 to factory settings sony 570kl viao laptop .

Windows before windows 7 used a cd or dvd disc to reinstall the os to a laptop or pc.
you could uninstall all browsers ,
apart from internet explorer ,
empty all the temporary files,caches ,temporary internet files .

Change your email password ,
get a new credit card if the card was used on that laptop .
IF some one has acess to your email password ,they can acess your bank ,credit info ,etc
as thats where the banks send you login info etc

MANY browsers are set to retain log in passwords to speed up acess to boards ,ie etc eg convenience over security is attractive to
casual non expert users .
https://www.google.ie/search?q=clear+passwords+from+browser&oq=clear+passwords+from+brwosw&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0.10428j0j7&client=ubuntu-browser&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8
http://www.seniornet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104:clear-or-delete-stored-passwords&catid=24:coursescategory

uninstall chrome, firefox, opera browsers .
clear all login ,passwords from internet exporer .

Khannie

Asmooh wrote: »

IF you want to be safe, swap the harddisk! otherwise people can always look back your data.

In fact, nobody has ever shown a way to recover data from a hard drive that has had a single set of 0's written over it. There's a lot of paranoia around this but the reality is that it's very hard to recover data with even some basic precaution applied.

have2flushtwice

I have the same type question as the OP.

I'm leaving work on Friday, and have to give back my laptop of 2.5 years.
i've everything backed up on an external hard drive.

I cannot delete my link to the cloud account, nor my email history.
and my boards logins etc are still active.
if I delete my internet history, and log out of everything will that be enough?
nothing important to hide, just all my old crap that I don't want anyone else looking at. wouldn't be at all surprised if my account is logged into by IT after I leave....its that type of place iykwim.
Thanks

Fysh

Khannie wrote: »

In fact, nobody has ever shown a way to recover data from a hard drive that has had a single set of 0's written over it. There's a lot of paranoia around this but the reality is that it's very hard to recover data with even some basic precaution applied.

Well, it's the old question of taking precautions appropriate to the risk, isn't it?

I've read plenty of stories about magnetic memory effects being exploited to recover data after it's had a single pass applied over it (and a case or two where some data was recovered after two passes). However, those are all cases involving specialist engineers working in cleanroom environments - and, well, if the person you're worried will get your data has those resources to hand (context - for recovering lost data due to a failing drive, you're looking at somewhere between £1500 and £4000, IME), they probably also have access to other, more immediate ways of getting the data - like B&E, or just plain kidnapping you.

Now, when I've sold computers second-hand, I've usually resorted to a 7 passes of shred followed by a clean reinstall to set up the OS and basic software installs. (The buyer thus gets a ready-to-use machine, along with reinstall media if they prefer to start over from scratch). A useful confidence test is to use PhotoRec on the wiped drive - I've ended up finding 10-year-old files on old hard drives with it, and it's a great example as to why a simple "format the drive" approach can't really be considered enough...

Luckydog69

AS previous posters have advised, it is best to nuke the hard drive with DBAN and reinstall windows, deleting files with utilities such as Ccleaner, Glary Utilities, Revo uninstaller etc is never enough...I know most of these programs gives an option to wipe the free space with multiple passes as well ranging from a one pass up to 35 passes....HOWEVER as I have discovered when I run a file recovery program such as DiskDigger (a very good utility) after a free space rewrite , it recovers tons and tons of files...these deleting and free space rewriters doesn't do what it says on the tin. When I do a nuke on a drive with DBAN ..( which is done obviously outside a Windows environment)... then reinstall Windows and run DiskDigger it finds Nothing of the previous installation. DBAN all the way for me.