Bringing a PC to original condition question.

[Suff]

I have two towers.

A dell I bought about 6 months ago and and HP pavilion I bought 2 years ago. I'm giving them both away.

I want to clear everything I have done on them. I am giving the dell to my sister and I have to get all my Porno off it. PLus my sisters knows I play the ponys.. but not to the tune of a grand a week so i want to just wipe it all out... all my documents, and files.. everything.

On the dell I have all the installation disks I beleive.. I have 3 operating system disks and 2 Office proffesisonal installation disks.. Do I simply Re-install?
On the HP I have nothing but the tower and its running windows ME... can I just use system restore?

Can one of you guys run it down for me how to get these things like I was never there?

Thanks

[headhawg]

Suff,

Do you want it FBI safe, or just from the new users?

HH

[Buddha]

you can reformat the hard drives, which will basically clean it all off, and unless your sis knows a lot, it will be gone. there are ways to still access the data, but not common ways.

with the dell, i think there shuold be a restoration disk which i think should clear everything, but i am not 100% sure about that.

[Suff]

Originally posted by headhawg
Suff,

Do you want it FBI safe, or just from the new users?

HH

no regular safe is good. I have alot of Heather from deep throat,com and so forth... nothing freaky or illegal...

and I write a fair amount of letters,,,and I save anything I think I may want to read later... PDF's and ZIPS that get off sites... There all sitting there ...in various directorys... I coud'nt find anything...

Like I say... its my 38 yeard old sister..and we're close.. I could care less about it from the standpoint of legal or freak level..

Its out of respect for her and my desire to keep my personal life.. including the horses and my other interests personal.

I just want to clean it up,,, nothing beyond that

[headhawg]

Buddha's right. If you partition and reformat your drives and do a reinstall -- either through a normal install or a recovery disk method -- you should be ok.
Unless of course your family members have access to forensic software. :D

BTW, system restore won't get rid of data files (porn, email, etc) unless it's a recovery, meaning that the procedure would include a partition/format of your drive(s) to put it in its original state.


HH

[Suff]

I'm 43, she's 38. We hung out for a few years at one point... I dated a few of her friends. ( and my other 3 sisters)

She knows Daddy has a sweet tooth.

[JustRalph]

On the HP...just run the restore........I believe (based on the time frame you bought it, I am guessing a little) it will offer you the chance to format it first etc. If so...go for it.

The Dell has a restore CD that does the same........I have one from the same time frame and mine does it......formats it.

That should do it.................if you need any help....email me and I will call ya......

God Bless Heather...........she is quite the woman.......huh

a true Internet Superstar.........

[delayjf]

Suff,
If your really concerned, just replace the hard drive with a new one. Then re install the system disks.