Clearing a computer ready to sell

tootles_2

I have a desk top computer which I am going to sell. I need to wipe the memory and disc, can someone tell me the safest way of doing this so no one can access any of my information.

Poppycat

I used a lump hammer on a hard drive last week it was only an old 15gb hard drive I used, however I am sure all you want to do is remove any personnel data and just have a clean hard disk

I had a quick look how about this

http://www.evidenceeraser.com/www2/

Not sure what te free version does but it states

Evidence Eraser thoroughly scrubs dozens of areas on your hard drive, removing and permanently shredding unnecessary files and protecting your privacy.

albertross_2

http://www.cbltech.ca/data-shredder.html

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

both free. Overwrite 7 or more times.

Toxteth_OGrady

Take the hard disk out and just sell it without it.

:cool:

TOG

newmoney_3

Format the harddrive as a starting point, this will clear away everything for the general user who cannot be bothered to try and undelete items.

Then you should get a wipe system program, I used quickwiper (http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/free-wipe-space.html) which seemed to do the trick when I got around to selling my last PC.

There is no completely failsafe method, except for taking out your harddrive and selling it without one, but I would expect that a program like quickwiper alongside reformat should be enough.

Hope this helps.

redux

http://dban.sourceforge.net/ creates a nuke boot disc

I haven't used this, but it is attached to the latest version of Eraser (5.8) from Heidi Computers

Eraser can itself erase the empty space, but I reckon it would take a couple of days or more

Alfie_E

If you perform a full/thorough format, that will overwrite the entire contents of a partition. This is as opposed to a quick/initialise-only format. So, if you’ve got only one partition, or the only other partition is for system diagnostics or recover, it’s just a case of reinstalling Windows and choosing the “Format the partition…” option, that is, the one that doesn’t say “(Quick)”.

It doesn’t really matter if the contents is zeroed by a full format or you fill it full of junk, the chances of anyone getting any data back are about the same – close to zero. See section 4.2.2 of Recovering Unrecoverable Data, to see what’s theoretically possible. But, that’s left for security services, with lots of time, and a national security concern.

tootles_2

Its really my bank details etc that I want to erase..... not keenon anyone getting hold of them..........I will have to look for the wndows disc that cam with the computer, if I run this I presume it will wipe the computer and reinstall?

chocaholic110

There were a lot of articles like this on various programmes acouple of weeks ago. All the computer experts said that the only real way to make sure all your details are gone is to remove the hard drive and smash it up with a big hammer!
Apparently if you wipe it there are programmes that can bring the info back, and many computers that are going to another country are being used to get bank details.

heppy23

Toxteth_OGrady wrote:

Take the hard disk out and just sell it without it.

:cool:

TOG

That's probably the easiest and safest way.
I saw something on the telly that said you can kill a hard drive by putting a few nails through it. 99% of data recovery people would refuse to even try to sort a drive like that out.

big hard drives are quite cheap these days. If I bought a 2nd hand PC I would change the hard drive as a matter of course and wouldn't mind buying one without a hard drive.

tootles_2

How much would a hard drive cost?????? I would have to have a techie to do it, hopeless with anything myself!!!!!!