Passing on an old pc

[SkyeSue]

I have a pc which I'm planning to give to a friend. Its in perfect working order, but I never use it as I always use the lap top. I have been told that all I need to do to remove any of my personal stuff is run the Windows disc on it again (the original one I got with the pc - its XP home). Is that correct?

[Mundyboy]

I can not say for certain.  I always take the memory card out of a PC before I dump it.  When I work in a school I negotiated a donation on a number of PC's from a local firm of solicitors who told me all memories had been 'wiped'  We we powered up the machines in the school we found literally 100's of confidential files on each machine.  You can not be too careful.   

[SkyeSue]

I can not say for certain.  I always take the memory card out of a PC before I dump it.  When I work in a school I negotiated a donation on a number of PC's from a local firm of solicitors who told me all memories had been 'wiped'  We we powered up the machines in the school we found literally 100's of confidential files on each machine.  You can not be too careful.   

Hmmm...so if I remove the memory card, presumably new owner will need to buy a memory card then. Is that easily obtained and inserted? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm not very technologically minded 

[Joules]

I am watching this carefully - I have an old PC sitting in my garage that I am going to put on Freecycle as soon as I get round to removing the memory!  Not really sure what it looks like or how to take it out though.  and will that be enough or will the data not be stored on the hard disk too?

[Mundyboy]

I can not say for certain.  I always take the memory card out of a PC before I dump it.  When I work in a school I negotiated a donation on a number of PC's from a local firm of solicitors who told me all memories had been 'wiped'  We we powered up the machines in the school we found literally 100's of confidential files on each machine.  You can not be too careful.   

Hmmm...so if I remove the memory card, presumably new owner will need to buy a memory card then. Is that easily obtained and inserted? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm not very technologically minded 

What you are saying is right ad it may not be worth the next party buying a new memory card.  Despair not - I am sure there will will someone along shortly that will provide a safe way to wipe the memory.

(ps I am still reading many of the private files found on school machines - some of the things that folk get up to)!!!  

[stuffster]

There was a report on the BBC or in Which? or something about sensitive data on computers and they said that removing the hard drive and smashing it is the only way to make sure your data is safe, but that would obviously render your PC useless unless  you replaced the hard drive.

It depends what you have on there and how much you trust your friend. If it is not sensitive and you trust them, then running the reinstall disks will do a basic wipe of the hard drive.

If you want to be more thorough there is software you can download which will be more thorough about cleaning the disks up

[SkyeSue]

Thanks for the replies. Well, the only things Id really want to be sure were removed would be my documents, my e-mails and my chats on MSN 

[Cob-Web]

(ps I am still reading many of the private files found on school machines - some of the things that folk get up to)!!!  

I do hope not, Mundyboy 



You can download for a reasonable price various software applications that you run to completely overwrite all data ever held on the PC. It usually takes overnight to do this, and then you can reinstall any software (the Operating system and so on) which you are giving away along with the hardware (computer) - that also means you don't inadvertently give away copies of software that you want to keep ownership of 

I can ask my OH for a recommendation if you like   

[SkyeSue]

I can ask my OH for a recommendation if you like   

Yes please Rachel...thanks

[Mundyboy]

Thanks for the replies. Well, the only things Id really want to be sure were removed would be my documents, my e-mails and my chats on MSN 

....your passwords, your bank details, your shopping details, yours e-mails to me!  There is so much on your machine (even deleted material) that could end up in the wrong hands if your friend dumped the machine some time in the future.  

[SkyeSue]

Thanks for the replies. Well, the only things Id really want to be sure were removed would be my documents, my e-mails and my chats on MSN 

....your passwords, your bank details, your shopping details, yours e-mails to me!  There is so much on your machine (even deleted material) that could end up in the wrong hands if your friend dumped the machine some time in the future.  

Awww, gawd, now Im getting paranoid....what if anyone got hold of my e-mails to you....I'd never live it down...right, thats it...friend isn't getting pc 

[Cob-Web]

OH recommends this freeware application:
http://www.dban.org/

You have to download the software onto a CD-RoM (or a memory stick if you don't have a CD writer), and then start the computer that you want to wipe with the disk in the drive. It deletes everything by overwriting it, so that it is all-the-way gone, and not retrievable even through forensic recovery    There are detailed instructions on the website!

He told me to say don't do this unless you are really, really use this unless you are really, really sure you don't need anything off the computer, and you have all the disks/software, keys, passwords and the like to rebuild it 

[SkyeSue]

OH recommends this freeware application:
http://www.dban.org/

You have to download the software onto a CD-RoM (or a memory stick if you don't have a CD writer), and then start the computer that you want to wipe with the disk in the drive. It deletes everything by overwriting it, so that it is all-the-way gone, and not retrievable even through forensic recovery    There are detailed instructions on the website!

He told me to say don't do this unless you are really, really use this unless you are really, really sure you don't need anything off the computer, and you have all the disks/software, keys, passwords and the like to rebuild it 

Thanks Rachel. So I use this software on the machine, then I re-install Windows XP using original disc....is that right? My friend is worried about drivers being deleted but surely they will be reinstalled once we re-install Windows? (He's about as useless as me  )

[Cob-Web]

OH recommends this freeware application:
http://www.dban.org/

You have to download the software onto a CD-RoM (or a memory stick if you don't have a CD writer), and then start the computer that you want to wipe with the disk in the drive. It deletes everything by overwriting it, so that it is all-the-way gone, and not retrievable even through forensic recovery    There are detailed instructions on the website!

He told me to say don't do this unless you are really, really use this unless you are really, really sure you don't need anything off the computer, and you have all the disks/software, keys, passwords and the like to rebuild it 

Thanks Rachel. So I use this software on the machine, then I re-install Windows XP using original disc....is that right? My friend is worried about drivers being deleted but surely they will be reinstalled once we re-install Windows? (He's about as useless as me  )

Drivers for what?    You might have a disk that came with the PC if it has a fancy graphics card or similar, if so then run that, rather than a Windows disk - but most common hardware drivers are included in the Windows Operating System installation 

[SkyeSue]

OH recommends this freeware application:
http://www.dban.org/

You have to download the software onto a CD-RoM (or a memory stick if you don't have a CD writer), and then start the computer that you want to wipe with the disk in the drive. It deletes everything by overwriting it, so that it is all-the-way gone, and not retrievable even through forensic recovery    There are detailed instructions on the website!

He told me to say don't do this unless you are really, really use this unless you are really, really sure you don't need anything off the computer, and you have all the disks/software, keys, passwords and the like to rebuild it 

Thanks Rachel. So I use this software on the machine, then I re-install Windows XP using original disc....is that right? My friend is worried about drivers being deleted but surely they will be reinstalled once we re-install Windows? (He's about as useless as me  )

Drivers for what?    You might have a disk that came with the PC if it has a fancy graphics card or similar, if so then run that, rather than a Windows disk - but most common hardware drivers are included in the Windows Operating System installation 

Thanks Rachel, that completely answers our questions....will get stuck into that tonight....oh and thank your oh for me