selling an old computer.

georgiesmum

How safe is this. The computer (desk top ) is in good condition but it is 7 years old. I have tried to do a format but it won't let me so i have deleted everything i could on it apart from the main working programs. I have no broadband on it now so can't download anything to format the drives. I did my banking on there but that is all off now. Is it worth the risk of selling. It just seems a shame to destroy it when it still has a lot of life left in it.

colin79666

It is not safe to sell it on without destroying the data on the hard drive. Deleting it simply marks the file as no longer required, unless you use software to overwrite the data then someone could get it back with other tools (all free).
Either get some disk wiping tool (http://www.dban.org/) or sell the computer without the hard drive.

Lifeforms

Do you have someone to sell it to? I'm not sure what price you are expecting to get for a very old computer, but i'd suggest parts on likes of ebay if you want.

You would have to sell locally, as the cost of a whole desktop base unit postage would be stupidly high to post safely.

If you split up parts, just store the HDD aside somewhere to deal in the future (perhaps buy a caddy to use it as an external if the size of it makes it worth while, then you could format it to wipe data later). Sell off the components if they still work, you might find if it's cheap enough someone will buy replacement ones for their old computer, like Motherboard, Graphics card if you have one, or memory. But again you wont get a mass amount for it.
The other thing you could do is remove the HDD, and donate it to any local organisations who take in old computers to make them work for those who can't afford to buy. I did this with mine for parts, as I made sure they understood the HDD was not included.

closed

factory restore it, install ccleaner, tick wipe free space option, and run

you can put ccleaner on via usb stick, or by connecting the an ethernet cable to your router.

Jakeandme

If you download and burn a copy of Puppy Linux on the new box then start the old computer with the disc this should let you in so sensitive information can be permanently deleted.

I am pretty sure you can also run the old computer with no hard drive from the Puppy disc, came across this years ago in an internet cafe in Spain.

googler

Just open it up, remove the hard drive and keep it. Flog the remainder on eBay or Gumtree, either as a whole or as parts.

georgiesmum

Thanks to everyone for their replies. Am going with googlers suggestion as it is the easier one

closed

you wont get much for it without a hard disk and operating system

googler

Yes, but even if they get a little bit more having faffed about reformatting, wiping and reinstalling, that extra money will be outweighed by the time spent on getting it ready for sale ......

closed

on a branded system with a recovery partition, factory restore followed by ccleaner is 5 minutes effort.

poppellerant

If you can run DBAN, then I would use that to wipe the harddrive and leave the harddrive in the machine. That way it will be worth more.

I think DBAN only does one pass, so perhaps run DBAN twice, or more if it makes you feel safer.