Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Following the purchase of a spangly new laptop, I will be flogging my old PC pretty soon. As I'm not very technically minded, a reformat is out of the question but I'd like to remove all personal details from my HD so whoever buys it can't fiddle around and use any of my personal details to order stuff off the net e.t.c

Can anyone give me some advice on what to zap and how to make things secure/safe?

Many thanks in advance.
:confused:

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

A format isn't that hard, quite easy with the right instructions, the hardest part would be remembering to boot from the XP CD lol. Personally I would create a new generic profile with admin rights and then go into the contol panel and use the User Account application to remove all accounts from the PC and then go into the C drive and remove all the profile folders apart from your new admin account.
Formatting would be easier though ;)

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

There is software that will write A to all sectors then B, C, etc

but you could do a format the hard drive as a bootable disk so that the next user can access the C:> drive

alternately keep the HD and buy a cheap new HD for the PC

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Just to point out something, if you are thinking of selling the PC with XP installed you will need to provide the CD with the Key that you installed if possible. Otherwise the new owner will have a few issues with the pc at some point ;)
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If you want a set of instructions for the format/ install to read through then you can try here
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winx...exfullpage.htm

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Also, IIRC, under the terms of the licence you must *not* then re-install that same edition of XP on your system but must buy a new one!

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Do you have recovery media- what make/model is it?

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Everyone on this forum of course abides fully with microsoft and all its licencing ;)
I would go with a format although anyone who really still wants your data will be able to recover it.I doubt you have any national secrets on your pc so I would imagine your safe.
When ive resold ex business pc's ive always done more than a format.I take the hdd out in front of original owners,then place it on a hard surface and repeatedly whack it with a 2 lb lump hammer.By far the most secure method.To actually totally wipe clean a hard drive it needs to be exposed to magnetic forces beyond the availability to us lesser mortals :D

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

It's an Advent with a 1 Ghz AMD Athlon inside plus 768mb Ram. I bought it second hand from a friend who'd upgraded from ME to XP Pro via his works IT department so no recovery discs.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Your best bet would be to scrub the drive completely and sell it bare then since you have no way of providing the media that was installed or the product key that was installed.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t take what Zinglebarb said with a pinch of salt. He is absolutely correct. There is freeware available that will †œunformatÃÂà ‚¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚ƚÂÂ� a hard disk in seconds. That is no deterrent to recovering data.

Even overwriting a disk will not prevent a determined person from retrieving your data. If your hard disk was to fall into the wrong hands and that person saw the characteristic patterns of an overwrite, it may tempt him to try and find what someone had gone to all the time and trouble to hide. (The overwrite is a fairly lengthy process). He would whack it in a spare machine, throw his software at it and in two or three days you would be surprised what may be recovered.

The chances of this are obviously very small but Zinglebarbââ ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s advice still stands.

Alternatively, if there is data on your drive that you feel is very important and you donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t fancy the lump hammer route, why not buy a small cheap hard drive to enable you to sell a complete PC and keep your original hard drive safe and sound. Then pop your original drive in a USB caddy and use it with your new laptop. Just a thought.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

buy a cheapo HD get the old one strap about 20kg of pyrotechnic rockets and send it to the moon.

:D

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Use a program called Eraser, highly recommended.

Cheers

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Why not just buy a 20 Gig Hard Drive from www.dabs.com or www.ebuyer.co.uk to put in the for sale PC
and just keep your original as a back up drive in a usb or firewire caddy for backing up onto?:dunce:

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

I suspect the spangly new laptop will have come with an operating system. ;)

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Since when does ANYONE give a flying f*** what Microsoft try to say.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

There should be some freeware out there that writes zeros across the drive. I know I had such a program a few years back on my old PC that now lies in the cellar. Format the HDD and reinstall the OS with no administrator password.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

He doesn't have XP to install again, his install came from a "friends" IT department and he has no media to use to install again.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Would help if I didn't skim read the thread :dozey: :D

In terms of desirability, it's probably best to buy XP and install it. That way you appeal to the tecky and the home user. A bare PC would only really appeal to a tecky, depending on the spec.

Re: Things to do prior to selling my PC?
 

Exactly, it needs an OS of some sort on it really to make it more appealing to someone buying it. Ideally a new OS that people know is up to date (patched etc) with maybe a free AV and firewall loaded so that it is ready to go.