selling my laptop, how to clean everything off?

[bhome83]

I'm selling my laptop and want to clean everything off so it cant be traced or hacked or whatever people can do to it. I've backed up all my files, and am about to restore the laptop to the factory settings. Anything else I should do before restoring to factory settings? Do I need some type of hard drive eraser that makes all files unrecoverable? If so which one and do I use it before or after restoring my laptop?

thanks guys

[Nuclear Krusader]

Well, the safest would be to do a zero write to the HDD, but that would also nuke the hidden partition you're gonna restore from.

[bhome83]

Im using cc cleaner's program driver wiper. Do you think this will work? It's currently wiping my data drive. The recovery partition is on my OS drive. If I use drive wiper on this drive will it also delete the recovery partition?

[glc]

Before you wipe ANYTHING, do you have a set of recovery media? If not, can you MAKE a set?

Brand and model of the laptop would help.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Whatever CCleaner is doing won't affect the hidden partition, as it's running on Windows and couldn't wipe itself even if it wanted to. And, yes, specs would help.

[bhome83]

Originally Posted by glc Before you wipe ANYTHING, do you have a set of recovery media? If not, can you MAKE a set? Brand and model of the laptop would help.

Asus K42jr laptop. I dont' have any recovery media. All that was given to me was a driver and utility disc. The manuel just says how the recovery partition restores the notebook PC's software to original working state.

Would this wipe everything and simply restore it to what I got when I first received the laptop?

[Nuclear Krusader]

Yes, it will format the OS partition and install all the drivers and essentially leave it as it was when it came out of the factory. I doubt it will do a low level format, though, so technically the erased data can still be retrieved and read.

[bhome83]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader Yes, it will format the OS partition and install all the drivers and essentially leave it as it was when it came out of the factory. I doubt it will do a low level format, though, so technically the erased data can still be retrieved and read.

So what would be the best plan of attack to permanantly erase the data after restoring to factory state?

[Nuclear Krusader]

In Windows, I think you're pretty much SOL, as the OS has no feature to delete data securely. I've also been looking for a utility, free or otherwise, that allows one to write random data several times over the space that is labeled as 'available', so as to fully destroy former data. If anyone knows of such an app, I'm listening.

[bhome83]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader In Windows, I think you're pretty much SOL, as the OS has no feature to delete data securely. I've also been looking for a utility, free or otherwise, that allows one to write random data several times over the space that is labeled as 'available', so as to fully destroy former data. If anyone knows of such an app, I'm listening.

aren't there 3rd party apps I can download that will do this for me?

[Nuclear Krusader]

That's exactly what I'm looking for myself. I posted that question in the past and got no answers.

[glc]

Download the manual from support.asus.com, page 18 tells you how to create recovery DVD's. DO THIS before messing with any partitions JUST IN CASE. The only way to completely wipe your information is a zero fill, which will DELETE the recovery partition. TEST the recovery set you make BEFORE doing the zero fill.

[Nuclear Krusader]

That's the best plan. If you're feeling curious, AFTER you've created your recovery media and tested them, and before you proceed to the restoring, run Recuva on the computer to see which of the files you've deleted are still in condition to be recoverable. This can set your mind at ease or make you worry more, it all depends on the results of the scan.

Really, if you've got very, very confidential information on that machine, the only way to prevent anyone from ever accessing it would be to create the recovery media and then buy a new hard drive, put it in the machine and then install the OS with the recovery CD; then keep the hard drive the machine came with and either continue using it yourself or destroy it with a drill.

[wade7575]

Take a look at Killdisk it does a ton of different write standards for writing data over your drive,I had to use this one time on a friends PC and when I called them they said a 7 pass method is a good way of doing this it's not a free program and cost's 59 bucks and if you ask me for 59 bucks why not just get new harddrive put it in it and see if you have a friend that has an OS Disk you can use that is the same edition that came with your Laptop install Windows to the new Harddrive and keep the one that came in it as an external drive.

http://www.killdisk.com/notes.htm

Originally Posted by bhome83 aren't there 3rd party apps I can download that will do this for me?

[glc]

Wade, killdisk will only wipe the entire drive, not selected partitions. There is also a free version of killdisk available that makes a single pass. If you want a free multi-pass wiper, there's DBAN.

Using someone else's Windows disk will not reinstall drivers and pre-installed software. Not the right thing to do if you are trying to sell the laptop and returning it to factory condition.