How safe is selling a computer?

jamdale

jamdale

jamdale

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Joined
27 Mar 2013
Posts
210
Hi all, this may seem like a ridiculous question but I have found a buyer for my old pc and am really paranoid about people being able to take personal information etc. If I take the hard drives out there is no way of someone being able to access any files or info from the privious owner right? Again this might seem ridiculous and I know theres not but im really paranoid as I have lots of work based stuff on my old hard drive.
 
If there are no data drives anymore then there's nothing much then can do to retrieve anything.
 
You could use a data shredder on the hard drive too if you want to sell that with it, it will overwrite each point 7+ times. So unless you had government secrets on it I would not worry. Data recovery after using one of these programs is next to impossible.
 
Yep, if you want to be completely save, sell it with no hard drives fitted. No hard drives, nothing to recover data from.
 
do what i do, remove and sell it without, highlighting the data protection thing or replace the hdd with a new one and either put an OS on or leave it as a blank canvas, again highlighting that or hook up a usb/ideally another hdd and copy the c drive to it leaving only system stuff that cant be copied and then CClean it.

i do all these options where available.
 
I run Dban to wipe the hard drives when I am selling them, or whatever software is recommended by the SSD manufacturer or the motherboard utility. If I am selling an old PC, including a drive increases value and makes it more attractive. I only ever include OEM software if I had such installed.

And if anyone can get data of a drive even after using Dbans quickest wipe I will buy them a bag of donuts.

There is no real reason to be paranoid, nor is there any reason to hoard old drives, or in the case of an inept IT manager smack scuzzy drives with a hammer.

Plenty of software is available to wipe a hard drive, and the majority of people are not going to waste time and resources trying to uncover someones secret jam recipes or undisclosed Nicola Sturgeon fetish or indeed bank detail from a drive sold as blank. Dban is really easy to do, has various settings, and believe it or not, there is not a secret group out there targeting second hand hard drives as possible data theft. If there was second hand drives would fetch more than new on eBay.

But do wipe it with something like Dban for HDD (not SSD) or the SSD manufactures erase software or something like ATA Secure Erase. Google those options before hand to get an idea on what does what.

Of course, NEVER sell an unwiped drive. I have bought second hand PC's in the past, and one comes to mind, it was an ebay purchase, turned out it was a family PC and just about everything was available on the drive, including family members facebook, ebay and bebo passwords and account details, browser history, thumbnails of search history and posted selfies etc. Without using any data recovery software! The owner had simply deleted the folders they thought relevant while trying to leave it as a complete PC with it's original Windows XP install.

I let the seller know this and wiped the data myself. One because I am honest and two because I do not trust the security of someone elses second hand operating system. I would run Dban on second hand drive purchases too before use.
 
Bear in mind a re-format does not wipe the drive clean so a windows reinstall maybe futile.

Here's what i'd do:

Create new new admin account.

Delete the all other accounts and their folders.

use ccleaner to un-install any applications you don't want to sell with the PC.

tick all the clean boxes including the "drive wiper" option.

un-install cccleaner
 
Thanks guys, im selling without any hard drives but just wanted to check there was still nothing to get from anywhere else. Thanks for the replies.
 
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