I intend to sell my computer.Before selling, I want to ensure all the messages received/sent so far as well as other confidential matters removed from my computer so as to ensure them not to be available to be seen by others. How can this be done?
2006-10-01 19:31:34 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Internet
The only sure way to be 100% certain is to either remove the harddrive and replace it or sell it with NO harddrive and let the new owner install one.
There are too many new programs used by state and federal law enforcement departments and available to the public that are capable of recovering deleted data. If someone really wants to, they can find a way of viewing everything you've ever had on your computer.
2006-10-01 19:41:34 · answer #1 · answered by GeneL 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as you're not worried about the CIA or NSA, you should be able to just zero out the drive (this means writing zeroes to all blocks on the drive). Open the case and see who manufactured the hard drive. Then go to the manufacturer's website and download their disk utilities/disk tools. These are usually put on a floppy disc. You boot off of floppy and follow the instructions to zero out the drive. It's easy, but will take several hours if you have a big drive.
2006-10-05 11:32:20 · answer #2 · answered by Fraggle 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whenever I sell or donate a computer I just remove the hard drive(s). This is what was recommended to me to wipe hard drives clean: write all ones, write all zeros to entire array.
FBI/CIA have equipment that can read data from hard drives even after being repeatedly erased.
2006-10-01 19:47:41 · answer #3 · answered by Kainoa 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can re-format it, or replace the hard drive with a new one and put on a new op sys.
2006-10-01 19:34:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
replace your hard drive
2006-10-01 19:40:09 · answer #5 · answered by avril r 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋