selling an old PC--How to "clean" it??

Question

Hi Im selling a 4 year old desktop and I would like to get rid of all my private information. Not to mention the different accounts I have on the computer. It is running windows XP. Does anyone have any suggestions?????

Answer 1

Here is a free option.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=61951&package_id=58479&release_id=439240

There are lots of options that are better but cost money.

Seriously consider the option of going to an IT shop and buying a brand new harddrive and taking out and keeping your current one. Won't cost very much and you'll be 100% safe (no eraser can ever be 100% safe). Being able to sell it as having a brand new harddrive will get back some of the cost of buying the new drive.

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Answer 2

You could erase the hard drive but that would get rid of windows.

Here's hwo I would do it, I'm sure it's not the most efficient.

First I would un-install all the programs you put on there (not the ones that are supposed to be on there like notepad, windows media player, etc.) Go to the Control Panel and "Add or Remove Programs" You might want to keep one or 2 good programs on there and then say when you sell it that it comes with those. A little incentive.

Then I would go and delete everything in your Documents, and anywhere else you saved anything.

In the control panel you can also add/delete user accounts. Make sure to get rid of everything in their Documents folders too, and don't forget to check the desktop and other places you may have saved personal files.

After you have deleted all that and anything else you want to get rid of, empty the recycle bin.

Answer 3

Wow! This can be a HUGE task if you want to keep the programs intact on it.

If it were me, I would get something called the "Universal Boot CD" (link below) and completely erase the HD to military specifications. I would then install windows from the original CD using all the defaults. Its up to you if you want to go through all the updates.

If you do NOT have your original windows key code, run Belarc Advisor (linked below) and print the resulting screen. All readable keys (including windows) will be there.

Cleaning each and every place where you have personal files can really be time consuming, but if you really want to try it, look at Ace Utilities from AceLogix (linked below)

Good Luck

Answer 4

format the harddrive. do a zero-byte fill format NOT a quick format
a quick format will only erase the FAT32/NTFS table, meaning the data will still be there.
a zero-byte fill fills the Entire harddrive with zeros, it's the same as a FULL format on a CD/DVD-RW, so it will take a long time depending on the size of the drive.

then reinstall windows XP. the key should be on the computer case some where if you bought it with windows XP

Answer 5

A low level format is a must (and the only way), otherwise you can easily extract sensitive information from your hard drive. Re-install Windows thereafter.

http://www.cybertopcops.com/

Answer 6

reformat the drive or put a drill bit in the hdd than smash the hdd

Answer 7

There relly is no easy way. You should go through every folder you have on your computer and delete the things you believe you don't need.

Answer 8

Go to killdisk.com they have a free hard drive eraser there i use it all the time to clean up my hard drives

Answer 9

well, you can reformat hd few times and reinstall windows but still with professional programs you can restore anything

Answer 10

buy a new HDD or reformat the HDD and install the OS after reformatting.