Computer advice....

[matt8808]

Yesterday I decided to treat myself to a swanky new laptop.
I've got myself another Sony Vaio as the Vaio I am replacing is still as good as the day it was bought...

So, my old Sony laptop still works like new, the only reason I've replaced it is I figured I've had it about 5 years so I'd treat myself to something a bit more up to date.

When I was buying my new one I mentioned to the salesperson in the shop that I was going to remove the hard drive from my old Vaio and sell it (the old laptop minus the hard drive) on eBay.

He asked "why remove the hard drive?" so I explained that I do a lot of online banking, managing bonds online ect ect and I wouldn't want any of my details getting into the wrong hands.

He claims that if I run the factory reset on the machine that it will COMPLETELY wipe everything off and restore the machine back to how it was when it was new.

Is this correct? Because I was under the impression that a computer never really deletes EVERYTHING?

For example, isn't that how the police catch people who've been up to no good on their computer? They get some specialist to go rooting through its hidden history?

Or have I just been listening to scare mongering too much?

Basically, is the salesperson correct?

If I run factory restore on my old machine will it wipe every single trace of my bank accounts and things from the machine?

I figured I'd sell it on eBay as it is still a half decent machine running windows 7, but I don't want to go leaving myself open to identity theft or anything nasty!

On a final note I'm in lurrrrrvvvvv with my new one.... the keyboard is backlit and its got a touch screen too... however I'm not too keen on windows 8!

 

[bagintheback]

You can completely erase the hard drive with the Windows 7 install disk. Be sure to unselect "Preform a quick format". Experts can often retrieve "deleted" data from a hard drive since most operating systems won't overwrite data until necessary. If you have an acceptable amount of disk space left, items in the recycle bin won't be truly deleted until another file requires that space.  As long as you format the hard drive, it should be safe to sell the computer. 

 

[s31463221]

Another option

Is Dariks Boot And Nuke (DBAN for short). It's a free downloadable ISO file and when you boot from it and run it on your drive, it completely wipes the drive clean, better than Dept.Of Defense specs (which most bank auditors require). When we retired bank PC's I run this on each one before we sold it. Congrats on the new laptop!

 

[davetranter]

HDD Security

Matt, please take it from me that even a 'full' format (or running 'FDisk' and clearing the Partition Table) will NOT destroy all the Data on the disc, I have personally recovered almost full data from drives in this condition. The only way to destroy the data content is to overwrite it with a random pattern using a 'Disc-Wiping' program, as suggested in Reply#2.

Incidentally, the British Armed Forces use sledgehammers to 'wipe' their old drives, NO machines are sold with HDDs.....

Hope this helps

Dave T

 

[tylerawells]

Reply #2 has it nailed. However, on the Windows 8 side of things, once you get used to it you will find it much faster and easier than Windows 7. If you spend a lot of your time working on the Desktop side of things, you can always pin the major programs you use to the taskbar, as shown here, so you don't have to flip back and forth between the Start Screen and Desktop Mode. I also pinned Control Panel to mine as to have a direct access to it without going through the Explorer Ribbon. Congrats on the new computer and good luck.

 

[matt8808]

Thanks for the info guys. I don't have a windows disk for the PC, it's one of those systems where the backup is installed on a partition on the hard drive and you press something like F3 to reload a fresh version of windows. Looks like I'll be selling it without the hard drive then! Would rather not run the risk of having my info stolen for the sake of a few quid