giving away my PC safely?- Help!!!!!

weezl74

Hi there,

I'd really like to freecycle a PC that doesn't work anymore, we can't even get it to not 'hang' on initially booting up.

We already have replacements, this one was just for our lodger.

I'd like to give it away for parts/ repair, but I know that in the right hands it contains lots of personal information, which could be used against us (ie identity fraud/bank details...)

Is there a way I can wipe the memory, or ask the collector on freecycle to do this for me in exchange for the machine?

Thanks in advance,

Weezl

superscaper

Just take out the hard drive.

basmic

There are a few ways to erase the harddrive, some you can you stuff a floppy disk in the machine, and let it startup off the disk and it will wipe - others you can plug the harddrive into your machine (alongside your existing one), and run a program within Windows.

This is how I would do it.

1. Download and install Eraser.
2. Shut down both machines, remove the harddrive you wish to erase from the machine, and hook it up to your machine.
3. Ensure the jumpers are setup correctly - if you'e plugging the harddrive onto an existing ribbon cable (usually flat, grey, and about 3" wide), then make sure the jumpers on drive you want to be wiped is either set as CS (cable select) or SL (SLAVE).
4. Turn machine on, ensure the BIOS information screen (the screen that tells you your memory and processor information as soon as you turn the machine on) displays the harddrive as being detected. If not, you might have to press DELete on the keyboard (sometimes F2, ESCape or something else - the BIOS information screen usually tells you which key to press, to enter setup).
5. Load up Windows, let Windows pickup the newly installed drive, go to My Comptuer and right click the drive you wish to format and select Format.
6. Leave File system as default, make sure Allocation unit size is set to default, make sure Quick Format is NOT ticked and press Start.
7. When format has finished, close it and load Eraser. Under On Demand, right click in the empty area, and click New task . Make sure Unused space on drive is selected, and the corrrect drive letter of the drive to be wipe is selected. Press Ok to return to Eraser's main screen.
8. Select the Edit menu > Preferences > Erasing > Unused disk space tab. Choose an erasing method that you feel is suitable - bearing in mind, the more passes, the longer it takes. Personally, if you're giving the machine away, I'd use the US DoD with 3 passes. Press Ok.
9. Right click your new task, and choose Run - if you're sure you have the right drive letter selected (it's only erasing the free space, anyway), and you're ready to erase the drive, select Yes.

Hope that helps!

superscaper

Personally I prefer to use DBAN to wipe hard drives (https://www.dban.org).

vyseyboy

As said, take out the hard drive.

Assuming the hard drive wasn't to blame for the problems the original PC had, you could buy an external caddy for it and use it as an external drive for transferring files or for backups.

tradetime

superscaper wrote: »

Personally I prefer to use DBAN to wipe hard drives (www.dban.org).

Yep, I'd also go with dban, assuming you are happy to erase the complete drive, including operating system.