UNSOLVED
M
MikeM91001
10 Posts
0
15827
July 3rd, 2005 17:00
How to Wipe Clean PC Prior to Donating
I have an old Dimension XPS-D PC (P II 300, 128MB RAM, 10G HD, CD-ROM, 3.5" Floppy Drive, Internal 100MB Zip Drive, STB Velocity 4MB AGP Card, Soundblaster Sound Card, Modem, 17" monitor) running Win 95 that I would like to donate/give to anyone that can use it. However, before I do that, I would like to ensure that all all my old files are wiped clean and there is no chance that any of them can be recovered. I am not sure how to proceed. Over the years, I have installed a SCSI card for a scanner and a second parallel printer port card. Do I reformat the drive but then doesn't that wipe out configuration details as well? Do I remove any additional installed cards?
I would appreciate it if anyone can point me in the right direction (steps to take, software to use to wipe the HD, reinstallation of OS and Drivers, etc.). I still have all the original CD-ROMs and floppy disks from Dell.
Thank you.
Mike
184
0
Posted July 4th, 2005 00:00
It may take you some time, but you can use Spybot's Secure Shredder to destroy your personal files rather than wipe the entire drive and all the installed software, drivers etc. Launch Spybot and click Tools in lower lefthand corner to expand the list. Click on Secure Shredder and shred away. By default, it writes over files 5 times but you can increase that to a higher number if you want. The higher the number the longer it takes.
You could also download/install BCWipe and use it during 30-day free trial to do the similar thing. When BCWipe is installed, you right-click a file and choose "Delete with Wiping" option off the menu. BCWipe uses US Govt security standard of 7 over-writes to permanently delete a file.
Ron
184
0
Posted July 4th, 2005 09:00
The problem is that there are registry entries that such software won't remove. It's better to do a secure wipe of the drive and reload.184
0
Posted July 5th, 2005 21:00
Agreed, those apps won't clean the registry. I thought Mike just wanted to make sure his personal files were safely removed. Personal data files (doc, xls, jpg, etc) shouldn't have registry entries, except maybe in 'recently used' keys, which won't matter if the files themselves are gone.
Ron
184
0
Posted July 6th, 2005 19:00
Thank you for the great advice. I do want to wipe everything off because who knows where I have managed to stash files over the years! If I do wipe the HD with sdelete, will I still be able to boot up so I can install the OS and donate a functioning PC? Should I pull out the 2 expansion cards that I installed before or after wiping the HD?
Thanks again.
Mike
184
0
Posted July 6th, 2005 20:00
You'll need the Windows CD and you'll have to set the BIOS boot order so that CD is first on the list. Then you should be able to reformat and reinstall everything.
Be good idea before you wipe the HD to download all the latest drivers from Dell for the chipset and the other hardware in your PC and burn onto CD. Install the chipset driver immediately after installing Windows, followed by video driver, audio driver, in that order. Then any other ones needed. Then you should probably go to Microsoft site and download all the latest Windows hotfixes.
Hope you have 2-3 days to spare. :)
Ron
ejn63
11 Legend
•
87469 Posts
•
321256 Points
184
0
Posted July 3rd, 2005 17:00
Or, just wipe it clean and donate it as is with the OS discs, if you plan to donate it that way.