Giving computer to hospice

loulou41

I approached my local hospice shop and told the chap I have a computer to give away and whether he will get rid of my personal details. He said, yes they have to do it before they sell and the chap next door has got a computer's shop and will do it for him for free as it does not take time. I told him I want it done in front of me as I am worried about my bank details. Can I trust him and leave the computer there if he is busy for him to wipe the hard disk later on? Also he says I can delete some stuffs myself. Therefore I am going to use ccleaner as I do not have access to the internet with this old computer and delete all the files and uninstall btyahoo internet. Is there anything else I could do before I give it away? I guess, I should be able to trust him as it is an hospice shop. What do you guys think? Thanks

rmg1

If you have the original O/S installation disks, you could format the hard-drive and reinstall the O/S.
It's not 100% secure to get rid of all your details (or so I've read) but your average user won't be able to access them.

albertross_2

if you have the OS disks, download dban, wipe the system securely, and reinstall the o/s. I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it, most people are busy, and can't be bothered to do such things.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

opportunity_cost

Yup, DBAN is the best thing for what you need. Here's a tutorial on how to use DBAN to wipe a hard drive.

loulou41

Thanks, I do not have internet access on old pc. I guess, I will watch the chap do it otherwise will not leave the computer tower. He sells and repairs computer, so it should be easy for him which is quite handy for the hospice shop as he pops and sort the computers which have been given away so I was told.

albertross_2

What are you using now? All you need is a floppy disk or blank CD, and CD writer.

loulou41

My current computer has only CD drive, there is no floppy drive I have tried to use pen drive, but it will not work on the old windows 98 SE. I guess I can download the programme and write it on a cd and transfers it to old computer. Will that work? Otherwise I guess, I will have to trust the chap after all it is for the hospice but will insist that he does it in front of me. Thanks for your help.

albertross_2

If you have a writeable CD and drive, download the iso file, and burn that. The chap in the shop may do it properly, but not everyone knows that formatting doesn't wipe stuff, even people who work in IT.

loulou41

I need your help with this, I am a newbie, my computer is a dell 5150. Can I save this download on a cd, then give it to the chap to use as I would not know how to reinstall the system. What about restoring it to the factory settings? Please very simple instructions for me to follow or I will be lost. I do no thave a program to burn cd, my sonic will do copy to copy and picassa will burn only photos. As you see I am really lost there. Thanks

mascherano

get a dead strong magnet and wave it around the Hard Drive

albertross_2

Save this to your hard disk and click on it

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/dban/dban-1.0.7_i386.iso?modtime=1155481576&big_mirror=0

Sonic might load, and allow you to write it to a CD.

if not, this utility will allow you to burn the CD

ftp://terabyteunlimited.com/burncdcc.zip

Then put the CD in the old PC and boot from it (there is a slight possibility that the old PC wont boot from a CD, in which case there isn't much you can do without a floppy drive.

Be aware, that if you run this, it will completely wipe the old PC, including windows, so you need the win98 disk to resinstall a working windows.

Whatever you do, don't accidentally boot from the CD in your new PC ..

TBH, not many people would be interested in an old 98 PC, so it is unlikely to raise much money for the hospice. If it's 8 years old, it might only be worth £30-40 to someone.