Erasing hard drive without erasing operating system...

michiganer · 08-14-2006, 06:47 AM

I hope someone can give me some advice about destroying files on my laptop. I want to sell it and make sure no personal files can be recovered. The only thing is that I can't find my XP recovery cd so I can't use one of the programs that wipes the entire hard drive. Does anyone know of a program that wipes everything really good but leaves the operating system? I will be selling to a family member and I want to make sure no embarrasing files can be found later on...Help!

bball4life · 08-14-2006, 06:58 AM

The only thing you can do is to go into the C:/ Drive and look for all the files and delete them, but that will do anything but permanately delete them from the hard drive. My suggestion look for that recovery cd, if you can't find it, you can order another one from the company that you bought your computer from, you can get them for like $10 or around there normally. Cheaper then a new hdd and OS, and then make sure to reformat your hdd a few times and run a program if you want. The only way to permanately get rid of files is to physically destroy the harddrive, but that is something I am guessing you would rather not do.

michiganer · 08-14-2006, 07:21 AM

Thanks for the reply. I have a Toshiba Satellite Notebook. I already went to the Toshiba site to see if I could just purchase a recovery cd from them. On the site it says that they have do not replace recovery cd's but I can send my PC in and for $75, they will do it for me. Its a joke. Maybe I should email them though to double check...

bball4life · 08-14-2006, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michiganer

Thanks for the reply. I have a Toshiba Satellite Notebook. I already went to the Toshiba site to see if I could just purchase a recovery cd from them. On the site it says that they have do not replace recovery cd's but I can send my PC in and for $75, they will do it for me. Its a joke. Maybe I should email them though to double check...

Ya well I know, at least the time of purchase they are like $10, it might be so they are sure you aren't just getting an extra copy of windows for $10, but call in a check.

Ku-sama · 08-14-2006, 07:38 AM

check ebay for recovery disks

bball4life · 08-14-2006, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ku-sama

check ebay for recovery disks

Ya that is definately illegal. A recovery disk includes a full copy of windows, so you are buying a used copy of windows.

robina_80 · 08-14-2006, 02:35 PM

fdisk?

RoveWolf · 08-14-2006, 03:21 PM

I don't see why you wish to not format? As that would offer exactly what you want. But in the mean time why not just use the Windows search and key in the file extensions for files you are in fear of them finding (for pictures do *.jpg, *.png etc) and for other applications such as movie files do (*.avi, *.mpg) and so on, deleting them as the Windows search finds them?

bball4life · 08-14-2006, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Breaks

I don't see why you wish to not format? As that would offer exactly what you want. But in the mean time why not just use the Windows search and key in the file extensions for files you are in fear of them finding (for pictures do *.jpg, *.png etc) and for other applications such as movie files do (*.avi, *.mpg) and so on, deleting them as the Windows search finds them?

She can't reformat, if she does she won't be able to reload windows back onto the laptop, because she lost the recovery cd.

RoveWolf · 08-14-2006, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bball4life

He can't reformat, if he does he won't be able to reload windows back onto the laptop, because he lost the recovery cd.

Oh my apologies. I was under the impression that she would have access to a proper Windows CD and not just those recovery CD's.

08-14-2006, 06:47 AM	#1 (permalink)
michiganer New Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4	Erasing hard drive without erasing operating system... I hope someone can give me some advice about destroying files on my laptop. I want to sell it and make sure no personal files can be recovered. The only thing is that I can't find my XP recovery cd so I can't use one of the programs that wipes the entire hard drive. Does anyone know of a program that wipes everything really good but leaves the operating system? I will be selling to a family member and I want to make sure no embarrasing files can be found later on...Help!

08-14-2006, 06:58 AM	#2 (permalink)
bball4life Diamond Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Somewhere.... Posts: 1,423	The only thing you can do is to go into the C:/ Drive and look for all the files and delete them, but that will do anything but permanately delete them from the hard drive. My suggestion look for that recovery cd, if you can't find it, you can order another one from the company that you bought your computer from, you can get them for like $10 or around there normally. Cheaper then a new hdd and OS, and then make sure to reformat your hdd a few times and run a program if you want. The only way to permanately get rid of files is to physically destroy the harddrive, but that is something I am guessing you would rather not do. __________________ Fold To Cure Team 12912 AMD 3700+ San Diego (@2.75) I A8N SLI premium I 1 GB OCZ Gold PC3200 (@460 2-2-2-5) I 160GB Seagate HDD I EVGA 7900GT KO (@550/1800) I Seasonic S12 600W SLI PSU I Audigy 2ZS I MX3100 Mouse/Keyboard I Logitech x5300 I Dell E193FP 19" LCD I Black Aspire X-Cruiser Macbook I 2.0GHz Yonah I 1GB RAM I 80GB HDD

08-14-2006, 02:35 PM	#7 (permalink)
robina_80 Diamond Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: LONDON Age: 24 Posts: 1,913	fdisk? __________________ Windows Vista Home Pre x32 AMD 4200X2 S939 512K (2.2) 512M ASUS EN7600GSTOP SILENT 1x80Gb 1x320gb SATA2 2Gb Dual Channel PC3200 Non-ECC DDR Memory Gbyte K8N PRO SLi s939 nF4 530W TAGAN 2FORCE T530-U22 Clabs Aud 2 ZS 7.1 OEM

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08-14-2006, 07:21 AM	#3 (permalink)
michiganer New Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4	Thanks for the reply. I have a Toshiba Satellite Notebook. I already went to the Toshiba site to see if I could just purchase a recovery cd from them. On the site it says that they have do not replace recovery cd's but I can send my PC in and for $75, they will do it for me. Its a joke. Maybe I should email them though to double check...

08-14-2006, 07:38 AM	#5 (permalink)
Ku-sama banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Computer Cave. AKA: King Computer Inc. Age: 18 Posts: 5,312	check ebay for recovery disks

08-14-2006, 03:21 PM	#8 (permalink)
RoveWolf VIP Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: West Midlands, UK Age: 22 Posts: 1,257	I don't see why you wish to not format? As that would offer exactly what you want. But in the mean time why not just use the Windows search and key in the file extensions for files you are in fear of them finding (for pictures do .jpg, .png etc) and for other applications such as movie files do (.avi, .mpg) and so on, deleting them as the Windows search finds them?