Donating my old PC

[EAA Docent]

I want to donate my old PC, but fist I want to totaly clean the hard drive so
nothing is on it. Is there a free down load that I can save to a floppy then
use it on my old PC. The old PC no longer has internet access.
Then I'll re-install Windows ME, Office 2000.
I would like to donate it to a women's domestic violance center in town.

Thank You,

Ron

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Hello EAA,

http://www.bluechillies.com/list/clean-hard-disk-wipe.html

http://3d2f.com/tags/wipe/harddisk/

http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/297

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
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[Dustin Harper]

This one does the job VERY well. Just download it to a floppy or CD and run
it on your old machine.

 

[philo]

I want to donate my old PC, but fist I want to totaly clean the hard drive
so
nothing is on it. Is there a free down load that I can save to a floppy
then
use it on my old PC. The old PC no longer has internet access.
Then I'll re-install Windows ME, Office 2000.
I would like to donate it to a women's domestic violance center in town.

Thank You,

Ron

Just format the drive and re-install your operating system...
none of your old data will be there

 

[ray]

Just format the drive and re-install your operating system... none of
your old data will be there

For practical purposes, that is probably adequate, but it is still
possible to retrieve the data.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Frankly, I'd remove the hard drive, smash it with a hammer, and replace it
with a new store-bought drive. As new drives can be had quite cheaply I'd
consider it inexpensive insurance.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

For practical purposes, that is probably adequate, but it is still
possible to retrieve the data.

It should be noted that *anything* you do leaves it possible (at least
sometimes) to retrieve the data.

There's only one way to guarantee that the data can't be recovered,
and that's to physically destroy the disk (which is what the US
government does with sensitive data). There are sophisticated (and
expensive) data recovery techniques that can often recover even
overwritten data.

But I agree with Philo, that just formatting it before giving it away
to a women's domestic violance center is almost certainly sufficient
for almost everyone. It's highly unlikely that the center is going to
unformat the drive in an attempt to discover the OP's secrets.

 

[philo]

It should be noted that *anything* you do leaves it possible (at least
sometimes) to retrieve the data.

There's only one way to guarantee that the data can't be recovered,
and that's to physically destroy the disk (which is what the US
government does with sensitive data). There are sophisticated (and
expensive) data recovery techniques that can often recover even
overwritten data.

But I agree with Philo, that just formatting it before giving it away
to a women's domestic violance center is almost certainly sufficient
for almost everyone. It's highly unlikely that the center is going to
unformat the drive in an attempt to discover the OP's secrets.

Well. I recently had the privilege to talk to an expert in the field of data
recovery.

If a drive is formatted or deleted it of course can be undeleted or
unformatted...
but formatting a drive , then reloading the OS makes data recovery for all
but an expert...
pretty close to impossible.

If a zero-wipe utility is used that complies to government standards...
it is actually impossible to recover the data. The expert defied anyone to
prove they
could recover data from a zero-wiped drive and said that it was an urban
myth about data
being recovered from a zero-wiped drive.

This is the interesting thing: He said the reason the government destroys
harddrives is because
of the possibility of a error being made by the person performing the zero
wipe operation,
rather then the operation itself being inadequate.

(I have first hand knowledge of this...but that's another story.)

So a simple format and reload should suffice in this case.
OTOH: If the woman's center were de-commissioning the machine...
then the drive should be zero-wiped or destroyed.

 

[philo]

Frankly, I'd remove the hard drive, smash it with a hammer, and replace it
with a new store-bought drive. As new drives can be had quite cheaply I'd
consider it inexpensive insurance.

A little drastic perhaps but effective.

I suggest wearing safety glasses if performing that operation <G>

 

[PNutts]

Do not just format and reinstall. Here's a link why:
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2007/completely_erase_harddrive.asp

Here's a link to the utility I use to wipe drives:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

The Internet is full of anonymous "experts". Since it is your data and your
identity, why take the chance? Nothing says the computer can't be stolen
after donation.

Also, thank you for making a donation to this one (of many) great
organizations.

 

[EAA Docent]

HI PNutts,

I downloaded the http://dban.sourceforge.net/ to a flash drive.
When I try to use on the old PC nothing happens. It shows that it has been
downloaded on to the flash drive.
Am I doing something wrong?
I never attempted anything like this.

 

[Malke]

HI PNutts,

I downloaded the http://dban.sourceforge.net/ to a flash drive.
When I try to use on the old PC nothing happens. It shows that it has
been downloaded on to the flash drive.
Am I doing something wrong?
I never attempted anything like this.

You didn't read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Go back to the website
and read it. It will explain what you need to do to make a bootable usb
flash drive (which you didn't do - you just copied the .exe file to the usb
drive, didn't you). If you still can't figure it out, download the .iso for
CD and burn *as an image* and *not as data* to a CD-R. Set your computer to
boot to the optical drive first and put the CD-R you made in there. The
computer will boot to dban.

Malke

 

[Michael Jennings]

There's some really basic stuff you don't seem to understand.

A computer has a small set of instructions built in - just enough to get it
started and search for devices that will have enough more instructions
to allow the computer to be operated. The process of the computer
reading the instructions is called booting up the computer. First it reads
the Basic Input Output System and searches for an Operating System,
then when it finds the OS, it executes the OS's start up procedure.

What the dban readme recommends is making a boot floppy disk,
and starting the old computer from the floppy. It says you probably
won't be able to boot the computer from a USB flash drive:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/download/readme.txt

If you make the floppy, you may also need to set BIOS on the old computer
to look for an OS on the floppy drive before it looks on the hard drive.
If you can't make the floppy, you may be able to burn a CD and set BIOS
to look to the CDROM drive before it looks to the hard drive. If you can't
do that, or figure any of this out, try explaining what you want done to a
computer repair shop, and asking them how much they'd charge.

 

[EAA Docent]

I finally got everything doing what it is suppose to.

Thank You for all your help and patience.

 

[EAA Docent]

I finally got everything doing what it is suppose to.

Thank You for all your help and patience.

 

[EAA Docent]

I finally got everything doing what it is suppose to.

Thank You for all your help and patience.

 

[EAA Docent]

Thank you for all your help and patience. I finaly got everything right.