Wiping a PC clean.

[GriM]

Hi all. I'm selling my desktop PC soon and I need to delete all of the programs/data that wasn't on it when I bought the PC e.g. games & applications will be deleted.

If I do this via "Uninstall program", could the next owner just use the "System Recovery" tool and select 3 or so days back. I don't have a Operating System disc to re-install the OS.

Whats the best way to get rid of the programs I've put on this PC & the passwords/sensitive data on the hard drive and the Internet browser?

Note: I'm no PC expert; informative steps please.


Thanks.

[Nersha]

Only way to do it properly is to re-install the OS I'm afraid

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would use DBAN:

http://www.dban.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAN

[TAKTAK]

I'd either keep the HDD, or nuke it with a few passes of DBAN

[malfunction]

DBAN will wipe the whole drive including the OS. Just delete the system restore points as a first step (after uninstalling programs / deleting your personal data) and if you're paranoid enough defrag the drive and then fill it up with something non copywrite infringing to make sure you've overwritten all the old files. Change your passwords if you're that paranoid. Or just wipe the drive and install linux. I don't see why you need to do multiple passes unless you think whoever buys the PC is going to send it to a (very good and very expensive) professional data recovery company! I usually just write zeroes to the full drive and then repartition and reformat it (as I've had complaints before from buyers along the lines of "my PC can't see the HDD")...

[Behemoth]

DBAN will wipe the whole drive including the OS. Just delete the system restore points as a first step (after uninstalling programs / deleting your personal data) and if you're paranoid enough defrag the drive and then fill it up with something non copywrite infringing to make sure you've overwritten all the old files. Change your passwords if you're that paranoid. Or just wipe the drive and install linux. I don't see why you need to do multiple passes unless you think whoever buys the PC is going to send it to a (very good and very expensive) professional data recovery company! I usually just write zeroes to the full drive and then repartition and reformat it (as I've had complaints before from buyers along the lines of "my PC can't see the HDD")...

Lets be honest here, anyone who buys a PC second hand doesn't have the money to go and take it to a data protection company just to see whats on it before they got it. Half the people I've sold old PC's to don't know how to navigate their way round control panel, let alone a data recovery tool.

[malfunction]

Lets be honest here, anyone who buys a PC second hand doesn't have the money to go and take it to a data protection company just to see whats on it before they got it. Half the people I've sold old PC's to don't know how to navigate their way round control panel, let alone a data recovery tool.

Quite. And as a techie the first thing I'd do with a 2nd hand PC is completely wipe the drive and re-install the OS.

[Behemoth]

Same here, although to be honest when I get a PC from someone else I always give them back their hard drive.

[mufa]

just outta curiosity.. is the DBAN better than the formatting done during OS setups?

[watercooled]

Far better - formatting just deletes files from the master file table (a bit like removing a chapter from a book by just removing its entry from the contents). The data still remains on the disk and is trivial to recover. Overwriting/erasing the disk does what it says - it goes and overwrites all the data on the disk with either random data or zeros. TBH I think a full format under Vista/7 might actually zero the drive now but I'm not certain so don't count on it...

[CaptainCrash]

TBH I think a full format under Vista/7 might actually zero the drive now but I'm not certain so don't count on it...

I'd assumed that a full format just checked that each sector was readable (as in XP and before), but it appears you're right.

Useful to know...

[watercooled]

It's not as secure as random data but it's certainly far better than nothing. Oh and BTW I should have said it zeros the partition, not the drive and for that reason too a DBAN wipe is more secure.