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. [more inside]
posted by t0astie on May 6, 2009 - 10 answers

How should I sell a used laptop (when I have no eBay reputation)? [more inside]
posted by Zed_Lopez on Dec 17, 2006 - 19 answers

How do I sell my dead laptop for parts. I know virtually nothing about computer thingies. [more inside]
posted by arcticwoman on Oct 16, 2006 - 14 answers

I bought an ibook recently on ebay here in Australia. I've just been emailed by the police today, informing me that the laptop was stolen merchandise. I'm resigned to the fact that I'll have to return the laptop to the original owner. (I would want no less if it was stolen from me) - but do I have a chance of getting compensation from ebay? the laptop was about $1,200 AUD. Any tips on approaching ebay and negotiating this are very welcome.
posted by Dag Maggot on May 17, 2006 - 14 answers

Help me sell (ebay?) my dead laptop, or its working parts, fairly but safely. [more inside]
posted by chndrcks on Feb 20, 2006 - 3 answers

Thinking of selling/taking back my current laptop and buying a laptop off ebay. Opinions/experiences requested. [more inside]
posted by mhuckaba on Nov 30, 2005 - 16 answers

Here's an interesting one: a few weeks ago, my apartment was broken into and my laptop, my girlfriends laptop, a stereo and a few other pieces of electronics were stolen. My renters insurance covered most all of it (USAA is the best, if you don't already have it get renters insurance now) so I'm not too worried about getting the actual hardware back. But today I get a call from Apple corporate security telling me that my laptop has turned up. I got in touch with a woman who bought it off eBay. I don't really need to get the machine back from this woman as she would then be out the $1100 that she paid and all I really need are the files. It appears the whoever sold the computer to her did a complete reinstall and the machine appears to be blank. So first question: Can someone suggest some software that can recover my deleted files? I'm mostly hurt that I lost ~3 years of digital photographs. And the second and more interesting question: what can we do to track down the criminals? I have the ebay sellers ID: j.a.z.california and the original auction for my stolen powerbook here. This guy seems to be selling a lot of used electronics which fits exactly with the type of stuff that was stolen from my apartment. Anyone interested in scamming the scammers a la this previous post on the blue?

on spellcheck: not in dictionary: j.a.z.callifornia, change to: rapscallion how great is that?
posted by garethspor on Jun 3, 2004 - 18 answers