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Question

Wiping personal info off PC

Mar 31, 2016 1:37PM PDT

I have an over 10 year old desktop I am wanting to completely wipe clean of personal information. Its old enough and a mismatched assembly so I only think I can sell it for parts if anything. I have been looking all over the internet to do this and everything is worded in such a way that I don't really understand what I should do. Can anyone advise me? Thanks in advance!

System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2
Computer: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1.80GHz 760 MB of Ram

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: wiping personal info
Mar 31, 2016 2:22PM PDT

The easiest way: remove the hard disk and sell everything else.
A hard disk over 10 years old is some 100 GB, maybe IDE, and not worth much. Neither, by the way, are the other parts.

An alternative is to download DBAN from http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/dban-2.3.0/dban-2.3.0_i586.iso/download, burn that .isi file as an image to a CD (use imgburn if you don't know how to burn an image with your current burning program) and boot from it to wipe the disk.

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As you found out
Mar 31, 2016 3:05PM PDT

This OS doesn't have the feature to wipe data and leave the old OS running.

DBAN will do a nice wipe of the drive.

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Value and protection
Apr 2, 2016 9:01AM PDT

I'm sure others have already posted about using some pgm. to wipe clean the HD however, being 10yrs. old. just remove the HD itself. Nothing else on the PC is going to have any data on it unless you have some media stored there. I hardly still think that's the case, just remove the HD and be done with it. As for any parts value, being 10yrs. old again it's not worth much and really no one unless a rebuilder of real old stuff may take interest. But, don't just toss it, I suggest you give it to the Goodwill which has recycling available or any other local recycling service/center that handles electronics. As for the removed HD, just smash the heck out of it to assure its destroyed or tear apart abit and toss in with the recycling stuff, of course after you wiped it clean.

tada -----Willy Happy

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You MUST Erase the Hard Drive
Apr 2, 2016 9:50AM PDT

Even if you remove the hard drive from the computer all the information on the hard drive is still there. If someone gains possession of that hard drive they can simply hook it up to another computer and that will give them access to everything stored on your hard drive.

Your can use a power drill and drill several holes in the hard drive to prevent it from being accessed and then take it to the local garbage dump or recycle center and dispose of it as "hazardous waste" which should be free of charge, or you can erase all the data on the drive. Erasing the data is pretty easy. As others have mentioned there is free software available to download which will do the job for you.

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Another suggestion
Apr 3, 2016 1:49AM PDT

As Kees says, the machine is not worth a great deal commercially. To put that in context, I bought a Lenovo T500 Thinkpad laptop last year, four years old, Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz, 15.4" screen in pristine condition for the equivalent of US $30 - yes, thirty!. Didn't have an operating system but that's OK, I wanted it for Linux.

So what about yours? While its commercial value is very little, it may have some value to a number or places. Maybe some youngster wants to learn PC basics hardware - what better place to start than a desktop that isn't going to break the bank if (s)he breaks it. Or maybe a school with an electronics lab, if they have them where you live. Or there are the charities that recycle old technology for the third word - some of the older components, like the hard disk and the memory are extremely difficulat to source - it could make the difference between a recycled machine and the scrap heap. So unless you've done so already, I'd say don't destroy the hard disk.

But what you MUST do is clear it. DBAN has already been mentioned and I use Partition Wizard from Minitool (free for the home edition and the bootable CD). WHat you want is the bootable CD. Make absolutely sure that you have copied everything you want off the hard disk, because once cleared, it's gone and no way back!

Download the bootable CD image (.iso) and burn it to a blank CD - note burn it, not copy it - you want to recreate the system in the iso image. Then boot up the CD and it will display all the partitions on your hard drive. From the tone of your question, I suspect there is only one but if there are more follow the same routine for each. Select the partition and either on the left hand menu or partition drop down menu, select Delete. It will ask you if you are sure (yes) and if you want to do a secure erase (yes). It will then delete the partition and overwrite the space it occupied with ones and zeros. Your old data is now gone forever. You can either stop there and dispose of the machine with the wiped disk or you can create a new partition - accept all the defaults and it will be one partition across the whole disk.

If you feel you want to have a working machine to dispose of, you'll be doing nobody a favpour reloading Windows XP, so betore you wipe the disk, download one of the Linux distros, Mint or Ubuntu might be good choices and burn that to a DVD. After you've wiped the disk, boot the DVD and answer the usual questions and it will install a clean Linux system to play with. You might even like it! But at least all your data is cleaned off.

Check the charities to see if there is one in your area, the schools or the free community sales sites like Gumtree and see if there is any interest in the machine. Locally is best, you don't want shipping costs!

Last resort, your local council hazardous waste disposal depot - should be free in most locations.

Thanks for your question, hopefully the replies will assist your responsible disposal.

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I think you could get more
Apr 7, 2016 6:05AM PDT

selling it as a whole because the components are obsolete.

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Good stuff
Apr 8, 2016 12:01AM PDT

Well, I don't know if this is helpful, but try this program I am using, Pc Privacy shield. Purpose is basically to protect you from online privacy threats, but still has some amazing options I am using it to cover the tracks of pages I'm visiting on daily basis. You can use it to find and delete all your personal info at once (logins, credit card information and what not...) After you finish, I believe you can sell your pc to anyone 'cos there will not be any traces of your personal information on your computer. Try it, I am certain you won 't regret it!

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(NT) And it's only USD 40.
May 4, 2016 5:56AM PDT