clear off laptop to sell

-TangleFoot-

Donnie wrote: »

He's selling it, not using it.

That doesn't make my point any less relevant - if the buyer discovers dodgy software within the install image they're not going to be very impressed.

Sparhawke

This program is military grade.

It will completely wipe absolutely everything right back to before the HD was even built, which I have found most formaters do not do, they simply change the addressing to make it look like a harddrive is empty.

I have even done it myself on occasion when I was testing something and wanted to format, supposedly wipe the hard drive with a format, reinstall windows and use a file recovery program to locate all those files that shouldn't be there.

if you have three tiers of wiping the first would look like this, each line denoting a wiping cycle. Most 0 is better.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111

0111011011111001110101101011011110100011

0111011011101001110101101011011110100001

0001011000101000000101101011010110100001

0000000000100000000101001000010000100001

Obviously this is hugely simplified but on each cycle it cleans more and more so that the data is so badly damaged and torn up that it is completely useless to everyone.

-TangleFoot-

Sparhawke wrote: »

This program is military grade.

It's also €39.95 plus VAT.

Prices in Euros (€) are for European customers. VAT number is required; without it 22% Finnish VAT will be added.
For customers from other countries, prices are in U.S. Dollars ($).

Sparhawke

Why should price always be an issue and that determine absolutely everything?

Yes, this is a money saving forum but for the best results you cannot expect to get everything for nothing, and if you really wanted to get the program for free there are ways to do that, aren't there?

The original poster asked for the best way to go about clearing everything, nothing was mentioned about time, resources or cost so I simply gave the best option in my opinion and not your opinion, a military grade wiper that is highly recommended by lots of people in the industry is a steal at £30, or whatever it would be in Euros

4743hudsonj

last time i sold a laptop i used a bluray movie image aroung 8.5gb and copied it over and over and deleting and copying again over absolutly everything until it was filled and unfilled several times over then boot and nuked it.

stuck kubuntu(my favoured linux distro for selling on to windows accustomed buyer as its not as much of a jump in desktop environment) on it and away i went.

i wouldnt recommend anything less and i wouldnt recommend more either unless sensitive data was on it, in which case id use a strong magnet, some battery acid and my summer bbq

over protective? maybe but i sleep sound at night knowing if somebody does go rummaging through my bins they wont have my data

bat999

Sparhawke wrote: »

Why should price always be an issue and that determine absolutely everything?

Yes, this is a money saving forum but for the best results you cannot expect to get everything for nothing, and if you really wanted to get the program for free there are ways to do that, aren't there?

The original poster asked for the best way to go about clearing everything, nothing was mentioned about time, resources or cost so I simply gave the best option in my opinion and not your opinion, a military grade wiper that is highly recommended by lots of people in the industry is a steal at £30, or whatever it would be in Euros

@Sparhawke
The program in your link wipes to exactly the same military standard as DBAN.
That's Defense Department standard (DoD 5220.22-M).

You're entitled to your opinion, but many users would think that the program in your link is no better than DBAN.
In my opinion, the program in your link is a waste of money.
:cool:

Sparhawke

No worries, everyone has different ideas on what is best and that cannot be disputed, I have never actually had need to sandblast my hard drive with a thermo-nuclear device and doubt I ever will...I have learnt something today

-TangleFoot-

bat999 wrote: »

That's Defense Department standard (DoD 5220.22-M).

Note: DoD 5220.22-M is just another name for the NISP Operating Manual.

DoD 5220.22-M is sometimes cited as a standard for sanitization to counter data remanence. The NISPOM actually covers the entire field of government-industrial security, of which data sanitization is a very small part (about two paragraphs in a 141 page document). Furthermore, the NISPOM does not actually specify any particular method. Standards for sanitization are left up to the Cognizant Security Authority. The Defense Security Service provides a Clearing and Sanitization Matrix (C&SM) which does specify methods. As of the June 2007 edition of the DSS C&SM, overwriting is no longer acceptable for sanitization of magnetic media; only degaussing or physical destruction is acceptable.