Passing on an old PC

Purple Mountain

Hi all.

I am passing on my old Dell desktop to my aunt.
I probably bought it new in 2009 and it's been sitting idle for years as I got a laptop since.
She's going to be using it for browsing and MS Office (she's learning computer skills in her active retirement class so I offered her the PC to save her buying a new machine).
Anyhow I booted it up, it seems to work but there are still documents and photos from my time on there.
I know how to transfer the items via a USB stick but I want to be sure all traces of my items are gone (I had a few legal documents on there for example scanned on).
I'm pretty good at minding my personal information so my question is..is doing a factory reset the only way to guarantee this?
Or is it suffice to delete the documents and then empty the bin and delete browser history, cookies etc.
TIA from a tech phobe.

gctest50

Download Everything ( search tool)

https://www.voidtools.com/


will help you find strays

gctest50

When you've deleted them, download Bleachbit or similar


https://www.bleachbit.org/

Purple Mountain

OK sorry for being a dumb ass but when I think I've everything deleted manually how do I use the above tools?
Sorry.

degsie

https://docs.bleachbit.org/

Purple Mountain

Would doing a factory reset be in any way damaging?

FanadMan

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Would doing a factory reset be in any way damaging?

Nope - you'd have to do all the updates (Windows and drivers) but it would be the best thing for it.

Purple Mountain

Would I have to reinstall MS Office for her?

alan partridge aha

Make sure there is no prawn on it

gctest50

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Would I have to reinstall MS Office for her?

You might if it's not part of the "factory " setup


Before you do any more, get the licence key of Office ( and anything else )

Download this and run it :


https://www.magicaljellybean.com/




It will show you the licence keys

Purple Mountain

Thanks all.

Purple Mountain

Sorry it's me again.
I'm going to download that app to get the licence keys.
My 2 questions are..
How do I know if MS Office came already installed on the PC- I can't remember.
Will the factory reset definitely wipe everything on it? There is definitely no prawn trail on there ad someone suggested but there were sensitive documents scanned to and stored on the hard drive.
My aunt probably wouldn't even know how to access anything but I would just like to be sure that the PC is 'clean'.
Thanks.

gctest50

Purple Mountain wrote: »

How do I know if MS Office came already installed on the PC- I can't remember.

.

You might be able to tell from the licence key ( i can't remember, i'll go look it up )

What version of office?

gctest50

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Will the factory reset definitely wipe everything on it? .

It'll wipe it but if someone was really determined they might be able to some get stuff back

The best would be to use "Everything" ( link above or something similar) and look for .doc , .xls etc and delete them


Then use Bleachbit to scrub the free space, then do the factory reset

gctest50

gctest50 wrote: »

It'll wipe it but if someone was really determined they might be able to some get stuff back

The best would be to use "Everything" ( link above or something similar) and look for .doc , .xls etc and delete them


Then use Bleachbit to scrub the free space, then do the factory reset

Create a new profile.

Log into it..

Delete old one.

Purple Mountain

NoDrama wrote: »

What version of office?

I think 04. It's old!

smuggler.ie

NoDrama wrote: »

Create a new profile.

Log into it..

Delete old one.

Just one more thing...

Make sure new profile is admin and not just user, you wont be able to delete original.

Purple Mountain

I fell at first hurdle.
So..when I was using this PC 8 years ago my Internet connection was a dongle O2 yolk attached to the USB drive on computer. There's no fixed line broadband here.
Now I have Eir FMS broadband, a box yolk plugged into the socket.
The old PC doesn't seem to pick this up in Network Connections.
Help?

Purple Mountain

I fell at first hurdle.
So..when I was using this PC 8 years ago my Internet connection was a dongle O2 yolk attached to the USB drive on computer. There's no fixed line broadband here.
Now I have Eir FMS broadband, a box yolk plugged into the socket.
The old PC doesn't seem to pick this up in Network Connections.
Help?

smuggler.ie

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I fell at first hurdle.
So..when I was using this PC 8 years ago my Internet connection was a dongle O2 yolk attached to the USB drive on computer. There's no fixed line broadband here.
Now I have Eir FMS broadband, a box yolk plugged into the socket.
The old PC doesn't seem to pick this up in Network Connections.
Help?

Does your PC has WiFi adapter(build in/external)?
Get one or use Ethernet cable to connect to " box yolk"

Skerries

does the box have an Ethernet connection?

ozmo

I'm sure your Aunt will be fine - but if she recycles it you don't know where it goes and its not hard to unerase data from a drive - or even unformat a drive.

for me - I would do a secure wipe of the whole drive and start again - preferably with the system disks that came with the pc if you have them - or put in a new drive.

Its a big hassle I know - but it all depends on how much you value your data and online accounts...

Purple Mountain

Skerries wrote: »

does the box have an Ethernet connection?

I'll post a picture here of the box tomorrow if that's OK.
I think I still have the wire that connected the dongle to the PC from last time around.
Is that an Ethernet?
Sorry..I know I am IT illiterate.

smuggler.ie

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I'll post a picture here of the box tomorrow if that's OK.
I think I still have the wire that connected the dongle to the PC from last time around.
Is that an Ethernet?
Sorry..I know I am IT illiterate.

Purple Mountain wrote: »

...my Internet connection was a dongle O2 yolk attached to the USB drive port on computer.

Usually dongle connects over USB.
This is how Ethernet cable looks

Purple Mountain

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Usually dongle connects over USB.
This is how Ethernet cable looks

Great..thanks for your patience.
I found one of these in a drawer.