How do I clean my pc to sell..without deleting things the buyer needs like widows xp?

Question

I have no disks and the buyer probably has tons. He works for a computer department for the military.

What folders other than photos, documents should I delete? Like if I applied for anything anywhere my credit card number and such would be on, where would I look to delete?

Answer 1

My personal advise to you is to remove your HDD, and tell the person who is buying your pc, they must install their own HDD.

No matter what any software company tell you that they can clean your HDD with all kinds of techniques, write over and over, bleach, etc., etc., I know for certain that any good forensic computer expert can strip all of your personal data off the HDD after cleaning.

If you remove your HDD, don't throw it away, as you are dumping your data for some other person. Use a hammer and beat the HDD, then it is impossible to retreive any data. Or keep at home in a safe place. (I keep all of my old disk in my home safe).

Minddocotor, France

Answer 2

If you have all the orginal documentation that came with the PC then you sihold have recovery disks. Take these disks and recover the PC back tot eh factory orginal condition. That will get rid of everything but the basic windows that came with it. Sure you could recover some of the old data from teh hard drive but would be a ton of work.

If you do not have the recovery cd then go to ebay and pick up a OEM version of windows XP. They run about $80 give or take a few bucks. When you do this write down the serial number off of the windows sticker on your computer back ot bottom it looks like the COA that comes on the WIN XP CD package. When installing this version use that serial number to redgester it and you will be golden. Then you should run the microsoft update software.

Answer 3

The best way to do it would be to reformat and reinstall your operating system if you have the CDs. It will be a lot of work otherwise, and could potentially cause registry problems. You will want to delete all programs that you are not selling with the computer - turning over all software disks and manuals for. You will do this in your control panel, or with the programs option to be removed from its folder.

You will want to make sure you delete all content in your My Documents, My Music and My Pictures folders. Then, for any software that is going with the machine - financial apps, e-mail programs, etc., that are personal, you will need to track down all the folders that store your mail, info, etc., and delete those. Deleting your profile won't necessarily get rid of all private info in the programs available to all identities, so you really need to make sure you go through each individually to remove that info. Then you have all those wonderful Temporary folders to deal with.

Like I said - easiest would be a complete HD reformat and reinstall of the OS.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 5

1. Get all the disks and product keys you need together.
2. Check again that you have all the original software.
3. Format the hard drive.
4. Install Windows and whatever else the buyer wants.

This is the only way you can be absolutely certain none of your private data survives, without going to experts and spending lots of money.

Answer 6

If you have the original CD's for XP , why are you worried about deleting it? Just wipe the drive clean and sell it with the operating system disks. A new install of XP on an old machine will do it a world of good anyway.

Answer 7

There are a number of free programmes you can download, such as one called secure clean, which wipes all of the sensitive data stored on your computer, and files that have been deleted, but are still on the computers hard drive.

Answer 8

Here is the easiest way to do this. Create a new user that is an administrator. Delete all other users. It will ask if you would like to delete all of there files. Say yes. WARNING the only way to totally remove all documents from the hard drive is to format and reinstall, the files that they can browse for will be gone. If the new owner gets special programs, they can recover deleted files.

Good luck!

Answer 9

Most PC comes with either (a) factor "reset" CD/DVD (b) factor reset partition (c) factory CD/DVD that can be ordered.

The PC will be like the day you bought it (no nothing else at all).

Try calling the PC manufacturer and they'll tell you if you have a factor reset partition (the easiest).


Good Luck.

Answer 10

The buyer is supposed to buy his/her own copy of xp,This will show up when the buyer goes on line.Re, Registration of xp.