Giving computer to somebody today, what private data should i clear out?

[bigben2wardpitt]

I am deleting all the firefox/internet files, getting rid of programs i downloaded, going to download crapcleaner to get rid of more of it, and go through my documents to delete more files, what else should i do?

 

[bruceb]

Safest way is either to Zero Fill the Hard Drive, then a Full Format / Reinstall of the OS
and any programs that you want to leave with the computer or if the new owner has
anything he wants you to install for him

Now if you want absolute safety, keep the Hard Drive and put in a new one
If the machine is a few years old, it's a smart move, for both data safety and drive reliability
Also, drives now are very cheap ..... so it is possible to install a Larger Drive for not much cost

 

[bigben2wardpitt]

also how can i make it so that he cant use system restore to back my computer up to before i deleted all this?

 

[bigben2wardpitt]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Safest way is either to Zero Fill the Hard Drive, then a Full Format / Reinstall of the OS
and any programs that you want to leave with the computer or if the new owner has
anything he wants you to install for him

Now if you want absolute safety, keep the Hard Drive and put in a new one
If the machine is a few years old, it's a smart move, for both data safety and drive reliability
Also, drives now are very cheap ..... so it is possible to install a Larger Drive for not much cost

yea well its too late to reformat at this point, i would of done that, but he told me he was going to do it. However, just in case he doesn't im getting rid of everything I can.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: bigben2wardpitt
also how can i make it so that he cant use system restore to back my computer up to before i deleted all this?

Disable System Restore. That deletes the SR points. If it's WindowsXP Professional Edition, you can also run cipher.exe /w:C:\ from the Start > Run box and it'll overwrite all the blank space on the disk with three layers of encrypted garbage data and then delete it all, obscuring stuff that you deleted but which is still really there. This can take a few hours so don't expect it to be a 10-minute thing.

 

[HAVOC2k5]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Now if you want absolute safety, keep the Hard Drive and put in a new one.

This is absolutely the best way. It's actually what i've done on 3 separate occasions.
I basically told the people that I gave the PC's to, that they need to buy an HDD only and the rest would be donated to them. I then Installed the HDD's for them and reinstalled OS...etc...

Then I dealt with the HDD's from the systems later... Usually doing what others have posted in this thread.

 

[Harvey]

If you're giving the recipient your Windows installation disk, you can blank the disk and either re-install Windows from the ground up or let the recipient do it. If you're not, you can't legally transfer the installed Windows, and whoever gets it will eventually run into problems when they need the disk for a repair or other help.

If you keep the drive, as others suggested, you'll have a backup of all your files, bookmarks, etc. to transfer to your new setup.

 

[Medea]

You can also use IDSuite to erase/empty your index.dat files.
http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=index.datsuite

 

[Kaervak]

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Download the ISO, burn to CD and boot. I use the three pass method, but if you're really paranoid, the 35 pass one may be for you. After that, whatever was on the drive is for the most part gone.