Selling a pc - wiping the pc of all information...?

meath man

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Hi, i bought a Dell Dimension C521 pc about 7 months ago - im now half considering buying a new Dell gaming pc which i started a thread on yesterday.

Basically im wondering if it is possible to complety wipe the pc of all information, files, music etc etc. - i.e make it impossible for the new owner to have any access to personal information - identity, credit card data etc?
 
use a low level formatting tool and also destroy the boot sector record and create a new one
 
If you do a full format or set Dell computer back to original factory settings , that should be fine :thumbsup:
 
Dell normally supply a restore disk, so defrag the PC (helps to make sure the files that you have deleted have been writen over again) then use the restore disk. It will be wiped enough for a normal user not to be worried about.

..unless of course you sell it to an ex kGB spy :devil:

Trouble is, PC prices have tumbled so much that if you sell the PC with no hard drive, and make the user install the OS with the Dell disk, you lose any profit you may have made.
 
At work we use Blanco then use a low level format..

If you just re-master the computer using the restore disc's you can still technically recover files from the hard disc,

This is because most remaster discs only do a quick format, other wise you would be waiting for hours for a full format during a recovery/remaster.
 
Hmm, i'm in the same boat really, thinking of selling mine so that i can afford an upgrade, so can anyone tell me what the step-by-step procedure is for wiping the HD?




Thanks
 
thanks for the reply guys, im undecided as to whether i want to buy a new pc/sell my old pc - the main reason is that i have loads of software installed on this - eg a vital poker software, pokertracker and other stuff like virus software etc. Is there any way to basically move exactly what i currently have on this pc onto a new pc without having to install the software all over again? - i have a 500 gb external hardrive fwiw
 
thanks for the reply guys, im undecided as to whether i want to buy a new pc/sell my old pc - the main reason is that i have loads of software installed on this - eg a vital poker software, pokertracker and other stuff like virus software etc. Is there any way to basically move exactly what i currently have on this pc onto a new pc without having to install the software all over again? - i have a 500 gb external hardrive fwiw
Not 100% but think that norton ghost will do what you want I think it makes a proper backup of your pc but have not tried it myself, and a good thing to use to wipe your hard drive completly is dban and its free. http://dban.sourceforge.net/
 
One thing to watch if you use norton ghost and decide to do a clone of your old computer is thus.. it will copy everything including the windows CD key etc for that machine, after the restore to the new computer it will attempt to load in all the old system drivers for the computer your getting rid off.. so will blue screen, so a windows repair will have to be done afterwards.. plus.. if your buying a branded computer, most of them come with a recovery partition, you have to watch you dont get rid of that.
 
would this be possible:

The new pc i am looking at has windows vista installed and it will not allow me to select windows xp. As far as i know the pc has 2 x 500gb hardrives

My current pc has windows xp media center - could I by using a program like norton ghost, install my old pc on one of the 500gb hardrives on the new pc and then use the other 500gb hardrive for windows vista? i.e a dual boot
 

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