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Vista laptop to dispose of, how to reset it

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24

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  • rsvtoddy
    rsvtoddy Posts: 244 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    I'm running a 1525 on windows 10 with an SSD and it's absolutely fine. Don't destroy it as it would be great for someone looking for a cheap laptop.
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,026 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    Take the HDD out & offer it on Freegle / Freecycle folks will go mad for it.
    See if there are any completed (sold) listings on Ebay... here
    If you put your general location in your Profile, somebody here may be able to come and help you.
  • The world is knee deep in old laptops, get a small screwdriver and remove the hard drive (often under a cover that's easy to remove, not sure about your model though).

    Hit the hard drive with a lump hammer, hard enough to bend the chassis. Take the laptop to your council dumb/recycling centre.

    Job done
  • WAYT
    WAYT Posts: 694 Forumite
    britishboy wrote: »
    nothings wrong with it other than its about 6 or 7 years old and i now have a newer faster laptop, this ones not been used for a couple of years so it worth nothing selling it on, its just in the way at home

    As covered in earlier, one only needs to update to the latest BIOS to be able to install Windows 7 for free.
  • SouthUKMan
    SouthUKMan Posts: 383 Forumite
    As others have said, please don't destroy the laptop. Even without a hard drive, it still has some financial value - but perhaps more importantly, there will be people grateful to receive it for free. Is there a local computer charity that issues working computers to people in need? If you really must destroy the hard drive then I can understand why you would want to do that for the ultimate security...however there are a number of data shredding programmes that do as they say.
  • were
    were Posts: 632 Forumite
    Dont destroy the hard disk either, just use the free killdisk or dban
  • longwalks1
    longwalks1 Posts: 3,825 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks everyone, guess the 'hammer with it wrapped in a towel' days are over, didnt even think of a charity of good cause. Will get mrsbritishboy to have a ring round later when shes home

    And I'll use a killdisk programme on it, so they can have the whole thing.

    Thanks again everyone
  • WAYT
    WAYT Posts: 694 Forumite
    britishboy wrote: »
    Thanks everyone, guess the 'hammer with it wrapped in a towel' days are over, didnt even think of a charity of good cause. Will get mrsbritishboy to have a ring round later when shes home

    And I'll use a killdisk programme on it, so they can have the whole thing.

    Thanks again everyone

    Update the BIOS before you wipe the drive.
    Click here to download. Save it to the laptop. Once saved, right click on the saved file and choose "Run As Administrator" and follow any prompts. Leave it to run and reboot on it's own.

    Now you can run the KillDisk or DBAN

    Once complete, you can clean install Windows 7 to it. The DELL re-installation image is in your Inbox. This way you can hand over the machine and the re-installation DVD.
  • longwalks1
    longwalks1 Posts: 3,825 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks again WAYT, will do. As soon as I've managed to sort out my g0d d@mn internet connection issues :(:( (on another thread)
  • GunJack
    GunJack Posts: 11,836 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    WAYT wrote: »
    Update the BIOS before you wipe the drive.
    Click here to download. Save it to the laptop. Once saved, right click on the saved file and choose "Run As Administrator" and follow any prompts. Leave it to run and reboot on it's own.

    Now you can run the KillDisk or DBAN

    Once complete, you can clean install Windows 7 to it. The DELL re-installation image is in your Inbox. This way you can hand over the machine and the re-installation DVD.

    Or even better, hand over the lappy WITH A CLEAN INSTALL OF W7 ON IT and the installation meda ;)
    ......Gettin' There, Wherever There is......

    I have a dodgy "i" key, so ignore spelling errors due to "i" issues, ...I blame Apple :D
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