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How to make old PC safe
gremlin666_2
Posts: 249 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Just bought a new PC and my friend wants my old one. What is the best way to make sure its safe to hand over as i used to do internet banking on my old one?
Don't listen to the bad things about Vista its the best :beer:
Just because it's free don't mean it's good :rolleyes:
Ditch Norton Now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wall:
Just Because you read it some where don't mean it's right
Just because it's free don't mean it's good :rolleyes:
Ditch Norton Now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wall:
Just Because you read it some where don't mean it's right
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Comments
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Don't give him the hard drive with it!
Remember, even if you trust your friend what would happen if he subsequently also gave the pc away with your hard drive in it to someone else in the future?
polybear0 -
Or, if you still have CDs for XP, download DBAN for free, write it to CD, use it to wipe the hard disk, then re-load the OS for your friend. If you don't have any OS to spare on CD, perhaps you could load a Linux distro on it for him (Ubuntu is probably easiest to get to grips with)0
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The only completely safe way is to physically smash the hard drive platters. Unless you have a forensic scientist as a friend, formatting the drive should be fine.0
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my understanding that doing internet banking doesn't leave personal info on the pc other than cookies to say you were on the bank's website.
all the info is held on the bank's system and you merely access it.
i stand to be corrected though.
Keen photographer with sales in the UK and abroad.
Willing to offer advice on camera equipment and photography if i can!0 -
The only completely safe way is to physically smash the hard drive platters. Unless you have a forensic scientist as a friend, formatting the drive should be fine.
The first statement is correct, but the second is not. There are loads of utilities that will help you recover data from a formatted drive, without needing to be a scientist of any sort.
However, using one of the utilities that the drive makers provide (e.g. Seagate's free-to-download Seatools) to write zeroes to the whole drive should be good enough to resist all but the forensic scientist. DBAN can make the data truly and completely unrecoverable.0 -
The first statement is correct, but the second is not. There are loads of utilities that will help you recover data from a formatted drive, without needing to be a scientist of any sort.
However, using one of the utilities that the drive makers provide (e.g. Seagate's free-to-download Seatools) to write zeroes to the whole drive should be good enough to resist all but the forensic scientist. DBAN can make the data truly and completely unrecoverable.
Yes DBAN is good but because it's so thorough it'll take an age to thoroughly wipe a drive of any decent size.
But it's the only option if you have ever accessed sites/downloaded stuff that you wouldn't want a third party to access.You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky
Any advice that you receive from me is worth exactly what you paid for it. Not a penny more or a penny less.0 -
Maybe I'll take the hard drive out. It was my banking stuff that i was worried about
Don't listen to the bad things about Vista its the best :beer:
Just because it's free don't mean it's good :rolleyes:
Ditch Norton Now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wall:
Just Because you read it some where don't mean it's right0 -
http://www.killdisk.com/ this is what you wantCan't sleep, quit counting sheep and talk directly to the shepherd :cool:0
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When we dispose of PCs at work they are usually offered free to members of staff. With these I run Killdisk on them from a floppy, then reformat and re-install the original operating system.
Any that are beyond repair and going to the tip I remove the hard disk, dismantle it, then smash the innards of the disk with a hammer.0 -
Thanx for the info0
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