I'm going to sell our old laptop on ebay for spares/repair. I have removed all our files and run Window Washer then Disc Cleanup. Then if I do a restore to the as supplied new setup from makers backup on the hard drive partition will that be safe enough to sell?
It has been used for online banking and all our other online business but I never tick the save password box.
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Run this on it to see what can be found and recovered:
www.piriform.com/recuva/features
(It is free from the same company that makes CCleaner).
If it comes up with nothing, then you can relax.
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Just tried this utility!
Why does it bother listing files that have been subsequently overwritten by a current application and are "unrecoverable"? deleting this unwanted file would result in deleting the overwritten one! so be careful out there!
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Download the ultimate boot CD, there are a lot of tools on there which will do the job.
Personaly though I would just remove the hard drive, used hard drives are not worth much anyway.
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Thanks. I want to leave the hard drive in because it is quite a modern laptop with Vista Premium and I hope the fact that it is up and running with no software issues will help the price a bit.
I'm ready to do whatever with the final deletions apart from the fact that I'm not sure how to move daughters ITunes account/files to the new laptop. I'll look into that this afternoon.
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An external hard drive is the least painful method - ours was equal to the task of shifting our entire collection from PC to Mac without undue difficulty.
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iTunes.
Download and install iTunes on new machine. This will create a folder somewhere called iTunes (possibly under My Music).
On old laptop, run iTunes, go to iTunesEditPreferences. Go to Advanced tab. Note down location of iTunes Media File Location. That's the music, all being well it's all in one place - you copy that to the new PC (probably the same place). Also note the setting for Keep Music Files Organised and Copy file to library and set to the same on new PC (once you have this working).
Locate iTunes library on old machine. Copy this to your disk or stick or whatever, then copy it over the top of the new iTunes library, replacing files - the key ones are iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml but do the lot.
Once all copying is finished, run iTunes on new machine. Should load old Library. (Note you should go through other settings etc if required e.g. equaliser, visualiser etc if she uses them).
NOTE. You can actually have two iTunes libraries on the same system. As you are starting iTunes hold down the Shift key - this will bring up a prompt for location of the library you want to use.
I believe you can just go to Store, Authorise This Computer and enter your user details to get the account up.
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If you're selling at spares or repair though nobody will care if it has a hard drive or a working operating system. Even if you delete the files criminals can still get hold of the data on it unless you do a full data wipe and reinstall.
I don't mean just format it as it is far too easy to recover data.
What is actually wrong with the laptop?
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If my makers recovery partition gives an option to format and re-load will that do it? What about Windows Washer facility to wash slack space?
The laptop has suffered teens! One key falling off, battery capacity down to 10mins, one hinge almost broken off and (associated I think) some vertical lines on the screen which can be made to go/move by slightly twisting it.
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So new hinges, battery and possibly a new display cable are needed then.
Doing a factory reset then a washer is probably better than nothing. A lot of it depends on what data was on there too. If you had MI5 secrets on there then the only way would be to smash up the drive.
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>>>So new hinges, battery and possibly a new display cable are needed then.
Yes... we have a new one now so I'll not repair it. Also looks like similar are selling for £50 on ebay and I'd be well pleased with that.
No secret stuff on it... not allowed to bring it home :-)
BTW Smokie thanks for the deatil on the ITunes swap. Busy this afternoon so will try it tonight. At least the kids can be there when I say *I don't appear to have your songs any more*
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 4 Feb 11 at 12:53
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>> it? What about Windows Washer facility to wash slack space?
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That will do nicely, unless you are the type who is paranoid about criminals and MI5 getting at your disk drive.
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>> paranoid about criminals and
>> MI5 getting at your disk drive.
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An alternative to "Recuva", as you are not interested in recovering data but checking that there is nothing there to recover, is to run a free trial of this very powerful commercial software. (The free trial version allows you to find recoverable files, but you have to pay if you want to use the recovery function. As you don't wish to recover files, the free trial should serve your needs adequately).
www.recovermyfiles.com/
Do a complete deep file search.
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>> Even if you delete the files criminals can
>> still get hold of the data on it
>>
Rattle -
Can you provide any evidence for that statement?
And if you can then:
Can you give statistics for how prevalent that is and any evidence of what the criminals have done with the data?
My advice to Fenlander is to ignore all that type of paranoia, but if are still concerned, jut run the wipe free space utility from the tools in CCleaner and then check if anything is still showing as recoverable but testing with "Recuva".
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This will explain more.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_software
I have used Photorec and Recuva many times when a client has accidently deleted a folder or formated their memory stick. In fact I have had to use it a few times when another computer shop has repaired it by formating and reinstalling windows without backing up data (sadly common).
It is a common belief that formating a hard drive wipes the data, it dosn't it simply wipes and replaces the file system so that when the next operating system is installed it knows it is safe to over write any data on it.
The amount of precautions are you need to take purely depend on the nature which was on the drive.
I did read a few years back that crinimals were buying used hard drives to try and steal bank data etc. I am guessing it wasn't sucessful as I have not read anything since.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 4 Feb 11 at 13:04
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John is right. Rattle repeatedly refers to "just formatting" but that is not what F has said he has done, nor is it what John is recommending. Using one of the various disk cleaning utilities, while leaving the os in place, will achieve what F is seeking. It'll take ages mind, but it will do the job.
John sensibly suggests a double check by running Recuva (or similar) afterwards to see what it can come up with and verify that the disk clean has done it's job. I can be paranoid but hey, let's get real.
John
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if this comp had my personal details on im afraid no way would i sell it to some oik on an internet site i would rather leave it in a cupboard to fester into old age
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Which is exactly what I do, with brand new 500gb laptop drivers costing £35 it hardly seems worth it all the time and effort. Still in this case the laptop will go for more money with a drive and without and it does show it is working, I understand that.
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>> if this comp had my personal details on im afraid no way would i sell
>> it to some oik on an internet site i would rather leave it in a
>> cupboard to fester into old age
>>
+1
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>> Rattle repeatedly refers to "just formatting"
>>
To give him credit, at least he did not mention root-kits, and neither did rtj70 jump in to mention his 38Mbits broadband.
;-)
Last edited by: John H on Fri 4 Feb 11 at 17:08
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...To give him credit, at least he did not mention root-kits, and neither did rtj70 jump in to mention his 38Mbits broadband.;-)....
And Iffy hasn't said 'Buy a MacBook' for at least, I dunno, a day.
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Does Iffy have a MacBook? Well, I never knew that. :-)
John
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Took all last night to get the ITunes sorted. OK in the end but daughter had confused the issue by syncing hers to two different accounts on two PCs. The IPod got in a bit of a loop with file transfer, file sync and a software update due... then announced it was seized & out of memory!
I've just washed the laptop free space to DOD standards twice and there are almost no recoverable files left so I've now done a recovery to factory spec from the makers partition ready for selling it.
Quite happy reasonable steps have been taken to protect ourselves... any more would be paranoia.
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F, it's only paranoia if you think they're out to get you. If they really are... :-)
Good luck with the sale.
John
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>>>Good luck with the sale.
Thanks... worth mentioning.
Looked on ebay to see what spares/repairs laptops of my model were making on the completed items search. Listed as a buy-it-now at that price level and it sold (and was paid for) in just 3mins from pressing the button to list it. Bought by a laptop repairer... my fastest deal yet!
BTW it took two sweeps with a DOD level wash before the recovery software regarded it as clean.
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>> BTW it took two sweeps with a DOD level wash before the recovery software regarded
>> it as clean.
>>
If you want to make sure none of your personal details are stored in the registry, then use a commercial or free registry editor or fire up the registry editor to find the data, eg. :
start > run > regedit
Then in the Editor, press Edit, Find, enter the string you want to find (eg. your surname, or first name, or names of members of your family, or password you used for wireless set up, etc.). If you find any instance of the word you are searching, delete that registry key/entry, and press F3 to find the next one.
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Clearing laptop to sell - John H
