Wiping my old laptop.

paul2468

Have won a hp laptop in a raffle in work, i intend to sell my old hp laptop but i would like to know that it is clean as i have done internet banking and a lot of shopping online, what is the best thing to do...Thanks...:beer:

Figment

A factory reset will put the laptop back how it was when you bought it.(It would then need tons of Microsoft/Windows updates - up to you whether you do them or leave it for the new owner to do.

Depending on your paranoia level, for added peace of mind you can use ccleaner to wipe the free space after doing the reset.

Dave_C_2

Two points:

• I don't store any important passwords (such as internet banking, online stores etc) on my PCs so there is no need for this paranoia when I sell on. All I do is create a new admin account and delete my old account(s) 2 minute job
• We desperately need a sticky on this

Dave

shaun_from_Africa

I don't store any important passwords (such as internet banking, online stores etc) on my PCs so there is no need for this paranoia when I sell on

Neither do I, but if you store a lot of other stuff on there, you may be amazed at what could actually be useful to a potential scammer, especially if you keep phone numbers, e-mail address, work related documents etc.

It's not really much of a chore to delete everything then run a secure wipe program such as ccleaner, cyberscrub etc before getting rid of the machine.

All I do is create a new admin account and delete my old account.
2 minute job

And only a 2 minute job to do a system restore and possibly recover all of the deleted info.

flashnazia

Good question and I agree it should be a sticky.

I've got a laptop that doesn't work. How do I wipe it?

Figment

flashnazia wrote: »

Good question and I agree it should be a sticky.

I've got a laptop that doesn't work. How do I wipe it?

Depends what's wrong with it (or indeed whether you were asking for help or suggesting a sticky title!).

Dave_C_2

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Neither do I, but if you store a lot of other stuff on there, you may be amazed at what could actually be useful to a potential scammer, especially if you keep phone numbers, e-mail address, work related documents etc.

It's not really much of a chore to delete everything then run a secure wipe program such as ccleaner, cyberscrub etc before getting rid of the machine.

And only a 2 minute job to do a system restore and possibly recover all of the deleted info.

Well, you live and learn! I was convinced that deleting the user accounts also deleted the restore points. Apparently not! Thanks

Dave

flashnazia

Figment wrote: »

Depends what's wrong with it (or indeed whether you were asking for help or suggesting a sticky title!).

Sorry! Should have said, question is for me. It's an old laptop with a broken screen but I need to wipe before chucking it. Shall I just remove the hard drive?

closed

yes, stick in a cheap usb caddy, use for backup

Figment

flashnazia wrote: »

Sorry! Should have said, question is for me. It's an old laptop with a broken screen but I need to wipe before chucking it. Shall I just remove the hard drive?

As above - put hard drive into a cheap USB caddy.

For rest of laptop (minus screen) it's often worth dismantling and selling the component parts on ebay.