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Old Computer

16 years ago

Yesterday, I purchased a new computer. Once I am sure I have everything of the old one...what should I do with it? Is it enough to delete everything...and perhaps reformat the hard drive? It is a 6 year old HP with windows XP. It still works great and I could perhaps give it to someone, but would want to make sure all my information is gone from it.

Thanks in advance

Kathy

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Comments (7)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
16 years ago
this is the best I know of to clean a hard drive so that you can then donate it or give it away.

Darik's Boot And Nuke

if you still have the original recovery discs you would need to give those with it for them to be able to re-load the OS.
grandms
16 years ago
Another option is a little program called Eraser. You can choose to remove only those things that you wish. I would definitely remove any personal items, such as documents, pictures, music, website history, address book, bookmarks, etc. Do a good cleanup first using CCleaner or some such utility, and then use Eraser. That way you can leave the Operating System intact.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eraser
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kudzu9
16 years ago
As I understand it, the Eraser program only securely deletes things you are choosing to delete now. The problem is that your hard drive has many things still on it that you previously deleted normally, and are no longer listed, but could still be recovered from your hard drive. If you want to do a thorough cleanup of your hard drive, ravencajun's suggestion is the secure way to go.
caseykees
Original Author
16 years ago
I will try ravens suggestion. But now I have 2 more questions.

1. Does the computer have to be connected to the internet, or can I download the program to a thumb drive and do it that way?

2. I have the recovery disks that I made, would those work, or, my computer is an HP, can I use the recovery partition to reinstall OS?
genes
16 years ago
If you have the recovery CDs for that particular model(by the way, is this a laptop) Then go ahead a do it that way, as it will return the HDD back to when it was taken out of the box.
caseykees
Original Author
16 years ago
Genes,
No, it's not a laptop. It's and HP desktop.

I guess now I am confused. Is it enough to just reformat my hard drive? Seems easier to just do that, then to use programs I am unfamiliar with. I am pretty computer illiterate :-)
owbist
16 years ago
Yes simply reformatting the drive - or as Gene notes just using your recovery CDs is good enough for the average person who has nothing to hide. Very few 'normal' folk have the capability or interest in trying to see what you had on there before.

Someone will no doubt be very pleased with that computer as a gift. If it is going to an older person it might be nice if you have the time to find and install a few free games for them.

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