I recently purchased a laptop from a pawn shop and was surprised to see that it still has a lot of the previous owners personal info on it. Is there a quick and easy way to get rid of his personal stuff, while keeping the important stuff (Windows, etc)? Or do I basically just have to send whatever I don't want to the recycle bin?
2007-07-30 05:06:11 · 2 answers · asked by foxydallas 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
Nice to meet an honest person.
Yes, I would definitely delete any software files - Word, Excel, whatever. Be care not to touch anything Windows. Then, open the Recycle Bin and delete them again.
If in doubt about a file, search Yahoo or Google for the type of file that is associated with the file extension (the three letters that follow the period after the filename).
You might also want to delete his games or whatever, clear his history, basically, make it your own.
Before you do anything for yourself, I would go into Safe Mode and run a full system scan with your antivirus program. Then you might want to run a Scandisk and defrag. This should get you on your way.
2007-07-30 05:30:12 · answer #1 · answered by TheHumbleOne 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have system restore disks start a fresh installation of Operating system
or else use this
http://www.download.com/Mutilate-File-Wiper/3000-2144_4-10712183.html?tag=lst-0-7
hope that helps!
:-)
2007-07-30 05:15:15 · answer #2 · answered by trader 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋