partial wipe before selling computer?

B

BerniniCaCO3

New Member
Hi!

I'm switching over to a desktop and will be reselling my laptop.
The best solution of course is a total wipe and reinstall, but from some harddrive issues last year, I know what a pain that will be....

I only have vista, but have a free student upgrade to windows 7... so I have to in practice install windows twice. There go a number of hours.
It'll have an archaic bios, which will need to be updated,
and then all the drivers will have to be pulled off of dell's website once more, there goes an overnighter,
then basic antivirus, reinstall word 2007, adobe reader, flash player...
OK, I don't have to do all of that for the next user. But they'll appreciate it; and having word is a nice basic selling point. Also has autocad.


a PITA.

So... if I just delete my saved passwords, move and erase all my documents and photos, how insecure is that? Can any idiot with a harddrive retrieval software, if my harddrive wasn't reformatted multiple times, find my sensitive information again?
Of course, it's not a bad time to change my bank and email passwords anyway. It's been a few months. And my meager porn collection is not blackmail-worthy.

But what I was also wondering: is there a program that will let me quarantine/save all those programs and drivers that I want to keep, and tell it to rewrite over all other areas of the harddrive multiple times to effectively erase them?

Perhaps not. Worth a thought and a forum post to find out.
There are other people selling computers, that come loaded with much more expensive software than just office 2007-- and they surely have gone through the same question!


thanks!
-Bernard
 
I have always thought that wiping the hdd is mandatory practice when selling a computer. This is so that the new user pretty much has a new machine to start off with and to do what they wish with.
 
That is really insecure because ive done very recently done some research into hard drives and securely wiping them. deleting files and emptying your recycle bin merely makes them "invisible" to your computer becuase it deletes only the index of the files location. So while your computer cannot see it, its still physically stored on your hard disk.

Theres lots of free and easy to download utilities on the net and you need minimal knowledge to use it.

I tested out a quick format and a full format on a hard disk and when using one of the first utilities that came up on google, i was able to recover the whole hard disk with all the files after quick and full formats within the hour.

To be honest, I think its worth wiping your hard disk securely even if it means a fair bit of installing some programs again. Especially as your passwords and bank details would be on there.

Im not sure if theres programs to select parts not to overwrite, Ive not come accross any.

Ive written a guide just recently about securely erasing your hard disk and I checked my method and using various recovery software, they couldnt recover anything,

Take a look at "Secure your confidential data and identity permanently" and hope it helps: http://www.macnamara.it/archive-software.html
 
It is always better to format the Computer/laptop before selling that to someone else.It will also even better. Yeah i know it takes a lot of time. I am also formatting an old laptop while replying this. It is really boring.

Java
 
at least your are formatting them before you pass them on. But be careful guys becuase like I say if you have had important files on there in the past it wouldnt be hard for the next eprson to recover them.

(Maybe im being to security concious haha, I clealry need more faith in people.)
 
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