Help me do what I need to do to wipe as much as possible from my PC before I sell it

May 6, 2009 1:15 AM

Tomorrow I'll list my ACER Aspire 3680 for sale on eBay. I want to be as sure as I can that there the lucky buyer has as little chance as possible of seeing passwords/pics/personal info. Normally, I would just format and do a clean install of XP. But I've moved house and my install disk is one of 19 packing cases stored 2500km away, so that option is out. I've listed what I've already done after the jump, but I'm hoping a more tech-savvy mefite might spot a hole in my erasure efforts.

All steps taken so far have been gleaned from previous threads, but I'm just not confident I'm 100 per cent across the cleanup.

So far I have: moved every file onto a portable hard drive; uninstalled every app (Office, PhotoShop etc); reinstalled brand new up-to-date versions of free/shareware (Win Zip, Google aps, iTunes, Firefox, AVG etc); run Crap Cleaner (cleared data from browsers, cleaned the registry, uninstalled a few things I'd missed); defragged; and installed Window Washer.

The next thing I'm planning on is a final clearout of my browser and Windows info with Window Washer. Then I'll run Wash Free Space.

I'm running Windows XP.

What have I missed?

Bonus question! What, if any, value could I add to my two year old laptop to help it sell well on eBay?

posted by t0astie to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Best answer: If you used the pc as the admin user, your Firefox install will still contain passwords and history even if you deleted it from within Firefox (check the sqlite files if you don't believe me). Delete the profile directory from disk.

Delete your non-admin user accounts, make sure the profile directories are deleted from disk.

(Not really sure why you have reinstalled apps on the pc.)
posted by devnull at 1:21 AM on May 6, 2009

Get a linux install CD and install that. Or install Win7 RC1.

If you're not including the install CDs don't even have that OS on the laptop.

Note that even doing the partition thing isn't a secure delete -- the bytes are still on the platter, though it takes advanced forensic tools to recover them.

For maximal security get a new HD, or secure-wipe the disk.
posted by mrt at 1:33 AM on May 6, 2009

Best answer: Unless you absosmurfly need to list this immediately I'd request new install media from Acer. No idea on the cost (they require a S/N as a first step) but it's usually pretty nominal. A fresh install is the only way to be confident you've removed any personal information as windows spews data all over the place.

It'd also be a value ad to the sale.
posted by Mitheral at 1:36 AM on May 6, 2009

Best answer: Seconding Mitheral's advice. I would wipe the drive with something like DBAN just to be extra-sure, then put a clean install of XP over top.
posted by aheckler at 3:35 AM on May 6, 2009

Best answer: When you are done doing all the things advised in this thread, get a copy of WinHex and search your entire drive, sector by sector, for your usernames, or passwords, or credit card numbers, or anything else you are looking for. If you find them, then you aren't done yet...

Remember that when you "delete" something, you need to secure-delete it -- or, alternatively, wipe all free space after you delete.
posted by profwhat at 5:47 AM on May 6, 2009

Best answer: Don't waste money on crap like Window Washer - if you're actually concerned about leaving data on there, moving and deleting will not be nearly enough. A one pass wipe followed by reinstall will probably do fine but if you're really paranoid, just DBAN it. A fresh install absolutely is not a "way to be confident you've removed any personal information".
posted by turkeyphant at 6:34 AM on May 6, 2009

Best answer: One of my coworkers just requested an Acer disc yesterday and they charged her $20.
posted by Liver at 6:55 AM on May 6, 2009

Response by poster: This is so helpful - thank you all so much. Re Acer, I'll give them a call tomorrow (I'm in Australia - I think the link above is for the US only?) and see about a new disc, then get to wiping and reinstalling.
posted by t0astie at 7:30 AM on May 6, 2009

If you're going to be selling it, you're going to want to get the install media as noted above, and use DBAN. to securely erase the drive before re-installing the operating system.

DBAN IS DESTRUCTIVE, IT WILL ERASE YOUR DATA, SECURELY, AND RENDER THE DEVICE INOPERABLE WITHOUT AN O/S RE-INSTALL
posted by iamabot at 8:05 AM on May 6, 2009

Do searches for media files (*.avi, *.jpg, etc.) to make sure you haven't forgotten any "secret stashes." The first laptop I bought off eBay seemed to be well cleaned and setup but had much less HD space than it should; when I ran a search for recent files (also to check for any spyware etc. that a not-so-nice seller might have installed) I found 60GB of porn in an innocently-named subfolder of one of the system programs.
posted by Billegible at 12:14 PM on May 6, 2009 [1 favorite]