How to delete Intellectual Property from academic computer?

*miaomiao*

Hello!

I'd appreciate any advice from kind MSErs on what to do!

Shortly I will be finished using a computer (tower & monitor) that I have been assigned for the past 5 years for academic research. Of course, material produced on it is my own Intellectual Property (not the university's) so I would like to be sure that I completely wipe it from the hard drive. How can I do this? The machine runs Windows XP.

At the moment, the computer has a log-in & password to use (although it is assigned only to me), others can also log-in if necessary but they do not have access to my files from their networked access. I know a few things are stored on the C drive, while other programmes have also been installed.

Advice is much appreciated, thank you for help in the past!
Ta!

fenlander_uk

After copying off your files and deleting them from the old machine (and from the Recycle Bin), you could use the Drive Wiper in CCleaner to securely wipe all the unused space on the disk.

*miaomiao*

Would this allow the programs installed to remain? For instance, I should leave them the MS Office Suite as it is the university's copy.

Scrilla

Second what fenlander_uk says

The installed programs will remain. Think of it as shredding the files you already put in the bin so people can't just pick it up to read it.

You may want to delete caches, browser history etc (all things that CCleaner does) as well before using Drive Wiper.

Lil306

I'd say DBAN it, then give it back to the University to reimage it, I know when I worked at Sunderland we had images ready to deploy on new machines anyway so we just rebuilt and reimaged em.

Hammyman

As above - DBAN. You cannot guarantee that using CCLeaner, emptying the recycle bin and deleting directories will remove all the information. The only way to be sure is to scrub the entire drive.

Ideally, I'd remove the drive and replace it - they're under £30 for a desktop hard drive.

bat191

I agree with the above; DBAN

Instructions on how to do it here

It will wipe everything, but the PC owner should be able to rebuild it themselves.

*miaomiao*

Thank you. I'll check with the IT folks to see if they'd mind about DBAN-ing it. If not, I'll go ahead with CCleaner. At the moment, can't afford the new hard drive and I resent them having a new one too! Haha. But thanks - that probably would be the best.

Mista_C

You might find it's standard practice at the uni anyway. When I worked in academia I.T. support it was standard practice to replace the drive in PCs before assigning them to be re-issued. The old drives were either DBAN'd (or equivalent) or crushed depending on sensitivity of previous users data/working status of the drive.