Selling My Laptop - Deep Clean Advice

mimi1234

Hi all,

I hope you are all well.

The time has come for me to sell my old Sony laptop as I now have a new one.

If I want to give it a deep clean (someone mentioned this to me recently, but it went right over my head. I've had a quick Google but it confused me), what exactly do I do? Is there any free software to do this or would I have to pay? Could one of your experts assist me please.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

GunJack

first, restore to factory settings, then use CCleaner's Wipe Free Space utility. If Vista or above, delete the windows.old folder on c drive before using ccleaner

GunJack

oops, should have said back up your personal data onto an external drive first...

Fightsback

Best solution here, use fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDfqwHck2Qg

googler

Take the Hard Drive out and keep it? Sell the laptop without the Hard Drive?

All your data is on the HDD.

GunJack

googler wrote: »

Take the Hard Drive out and keep it? Sell the laptop without the Hard Drive?

All your data is on the HDD.

!!!!!!!!! This will be a second-hand laptop!! It's getting a bit much, people on here recommending trashing a lappy that's going to be sold by removing a hdd (and rendering said lappy almost worthless) and physically destroying it...

If people restore to factory and then overwrite the remaining free space with a couple of passes, it's plenty adequate for removing personal data.... the amount of time, cost and effort it'd take to forensically examine (let alone recover data from) a well-wiped hdd just wouldn't be worth it to anyone...

tronator

googler wrote: »

Take the Hard Drive out and keep it? Sell the laptop without the Hard Drive?

All your data is on the HDD.

You get much less for a laptop without hard disk as the potential buyer will need to buy a hard disk and fit it by himself.
Why not following GunJack's advice? Don't come me with stories about recovering overwritten data. These exist only in spy movies...

dominoman

GunJack wrote: »

!!!!!!!!! This will be a second-hand laptop!! It's getting a bit much, people on here recommending trashing a lappy that's going to be sold by removing a hdd (and rendering said lappy almost worthless) and physically destroying it...

If people restore to factory and then overwrite the remaining free space with a couple of passes, it's plenty adequate for removing personal data.... the amount of time, cost and effort it'd take to forensically examine (let alone recover data from) a well-wiped hdd just wouldn't be worth it to anyone...

I totally disagree. Most people won't know how to wipe a hard drive properly, so if you have any personal information on the laptop then removing the hard drive and keeping it / smashing with a hammer is the best option.

A second hand laptop isn't worth much - with or without the HDD

GunJack

dominoman wrote: »

I totally disagree. Most people won't know how to wipe a hard drive properly, so if you have any personal information on the laptop then removing the hard drive and keeping it / smashing with a hammer is the best option.

A second hand laptop isn't worth much - with or without the HDD

sorry, but it's a VERY EASY thing to do, CCleaner has the tool built-in to do this, a couple of clicks /(and several hours) later and it's done..

..the days of DBAN being the only viable way to do this are long gone

OhhToria

While, personally, I'd take GunJack's advice, I don't agree with, "the amount of time, cost and effort it'd take to forensically examine (let alone recover data from) a well-wiped hdd just wouldn't be worth it to anyone..." - actually, crims buy old laptops on places like eBay specifically for such purposes as to commit fraudulent activity.

All I'd say, mimi1234, is your old laptop a top spec so the resale price is worth the hassle of even putting up for sale? If you haven't already, you might want to check eBay for going sales rate at the mo for a similar spec laptop. You might end up thinking it's not worth the hassle, thus, taking a sledgehammer to it, or keeping it for use in future in case your new one dies.

tronator

OhhToria wrote: »

While, personally, I'd take GunJack's advice, I don't agree with, "the amount of time, cost and effort it'd take to forensically examine (let alone recover data from) a well-wiped hdd just wouldn't be worth it to anyone..." - actually, crims buy old laptops on places like eBay specifically for such purposes as to commit fraudulent activity.

Yes, the "crims" buy used laptops in the hope that the previous owner didn't wipe the hard disk before. If you wipe your hard disk, then you can't disagree with the quote from GunJack.