Selling Laptop, how can I clean Windows first?

Selling my laptop, need tips to delete data.

Hello everyone.

I've been reading this forum all day and searching on Google ways to really delete my data, I've watched some documentaries about identity theft which made me paranoid about it.

This forum taught me that formating my computer isn't enough to protect my data and my data still stored somewhere on my hd, is that correct?

Then, I found Dban a software which actually delete this data, but I have a problem running it.

I used a usb, installed it with pendrivelinux, when it asked me to press F10 to start the process I got a dev.sra error, searched google and couldn't find a solution.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

First download the utility from your hdd manufacturer to perform a low level format on it.

When that's done erase the drive with killdisk or eraser

 

Thanks CloneRanger and everyone else, some real good programs there

 

+1


Your Laptop may have a recovery partition? If it does you can use it to reinstall windows to factory default.

If you do have a recovery partition?

Step 1, Google your brand of laptop Example; "How to access Compaq laptop recovery partition" than you can figure out what you should press during boot to access your recovery partition.

2.Restore the partition to factory default.

3.Install Eraser 5.8.8 "Do Not install Eraser 6 because it is an unstable piece of crap" Get V5. from http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/files/Eraser 5/5.8.8/ set it to pseudorandom pass and wipe your freespace, you can do this by going to my computer and right clicking on the C drive and selecting Wipe Unused Space in the context menu, when a confirmation window appears select the options button then select pseudorandom from the options window click ok then click Yes to wipe the freespace.

This should be more than enough to protect your privacy.

 

Now If you still don't want to go threw all the hassle of reformatting ect your best bet is East-Tec Eraser 2011 Full 15 day trial, just uninstall when your done. It will clean more than any of the software listed in this thread, just make sure to go threw all the options and set them to maximize cleaning, (For the Cleaning algorithm "Random Pass" is what I would choose anything over that is overkill ) It is also faster to just delete all of your pictures ect, empty your recycle bin, and use the Erase Deleted Data in ETE to erase/overwrite all of the data that remains in freespace than to erase pics ect one by one...

 

Are you kidding? DBAN wipes way better than this. As said above doing a "in windows" wipe is NOT going to wipe everything. Windows stores WAY to many artifacts (Lots of which can be extremely hard to remove). Even if you wipe free space lot's will still remain. DBAN Will actually wipe every bit of data with either Zeros, DOD, NSA, GUTMAN, or PRNG Stream. Anything more than Zero-ing is overkill on a modern HDD (as explained by countless researchers). I personally use PRNG Stream with 8 rounds if I am going to sell or throw out the computer just to future proof it. That said the tool you linked to is good if you want an alternative to CCleaner (I have used it before) However I prefer free tools

 

Killdisk is good stuff.

 

Hard Drive Shredder by Miray Software is very good.

 

Did you even read my post before you replied, I said "Now If you still don't want to go threw all the hassle of reformatting ect" and when I said It will clean better than any other software listed in this thread I was meaning software like ccleaner ect not software like D-Ban which requires reformatting once you are done, I have read posts on forensics forums where the examiner was unable to find any evidence because the user used East-Tech Eraser, I dont know what your trying to wipe, but I highly doubt anything viable/important will be left behind after using East-Tech, like who do you think is going to buy the laptop? A Nosie computer Forensic Examiner? probably not, probably just some dupe from craigslist who only cares about watching youtube vids and checking their emails.

Plus I can even Erase a HD on a drive dock using East-Tech Eraser "Entire Drive wiper" which wipes everything D-Ban Does, so why would I want to boot a machine with D-Ban every time I want to wipe a drive?

The OP Here was more concerned about wiping Internet temp and cache in the first place so I highly doubt their is anything on his machine that is top secret dude.

But in the end Personally I would either go with the method in my first reply, or if the laptop didn't have a restore partition I would just wipe the entire drive and restore it with the media I created the day I purchased the Machine before I sold it to any unknown buyer.

 

Download the trial version of R-Wipe. http://www.r-wipe.com/.

First use all of the options in the left menu list. Here is a sample of the list. It is too large to put into one screen.

http://i.imgur.com/xoUew.jpg

Then restart your computer and wipe the free space using the pseudo-random setting.

http://i.imgur.com/Dkbko.jpg

Then reinstall your OS.

 

R-Wipe is good too maby try both R-Wipe and East-Tec and see if one cleans somthing the other doesnt?

 

Did you read my reply? I said "..As said above wiping free space and NOT the entire disk is NOT good enough when selling a computer" This is because windows leave behind artifacts that such tools miss. Don't believe me? Run East-Tech and Than CCleaner, you WILL see leftovers (files missed). I don't mean East-Tech isn't wiping securely but it (like CCleaner and all others) miss some copies left behind by windows. Also as mentioned in countless articles it is VERY unlikely that you can remove ALL traces without DBAN or Killdisk etc.

Also why pay for East-Tech when there are plenty of free (and open-source) tools that do the same?

If you still don't believe me then why not wipe your HDD with East-Tech and send me a bit-by-bit image of it. I bet I will find left over artifacts on the image.

 

CCleaner, 360Amigo all are very good cleaner for this case. Also you can try the disk wipe function in 360Amigo. this can clean all the free space in the disk and prevent any file recovery in the future.

 

Infect it with Sality and Virut. Let them run wild in it for a couple of days.
Then download hirenbootcd
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.14.0.zip

Make a usb bootdisk with it
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/

Boot with it. Choose dos program hdd utilities. Choose your hdd manufactuters wipe utility . Will be Seagate seatools wd wipe etc etc then do a zero fill. When done go back to disk utilities and choose dban. wipe the drive. then reinstqll windows using the long format method. Enable indexing service and set the defrag for every couple of hours.

 

I know thats how some feel but in the end its all about the user and what they used their machine for. also some people dont have a copy of their original OS and dont want to buy or pirate one so they can sell their laptop and dont want to give it up cheaper because they went and wiped windows from it, This is why a user should always create media to restore their windows when they want to sell their, but most dont and do not have this option,

East -tech wipes everything from Internet history to shadow copies, so it covers windows just fine!

The only thing I can think of that probably stores other personal information that East-tech might miss is different types of media software stores databases of files, and some security software that supports the Option "Only scan new or modified objects" which creates a database of files scanned so that it does not scan unmodified old objects again, but you could use revo or smartie uninstaller to remove the reminance of these softwares, Comodo cleaner to get rid of redundant files and CCleaner quick wipe and registry cleaner, before you run East-Tech to speed up the process.

 

'nuff said. I agree with that. However I still find it doubtful you can remove every peace of data without wiping the HDD with DBAN or killdisk. (MHO though and shared with others as above.) Let's agree to disagree on this point

 

I would like to add one more option. SecureErase, formally HDDerase. It erases the hard drive using the internal ATA erase command of the hard drive.

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

 

Re: Selling my laptop, need tips to delete data.

Yes, formatting it will not be good enough at all, really.

Formatting a drive, or deleting files, is a bit like removing the license plate from a car or cars, or the number plates from a house - the car or cars, or houses are still there, it's just that they can't be identified readily.

I recommend Warlockz's posts below.

 

Thank you for adding this very, very important option.

From what I've read, this is better than DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) at eliminating *all* private data on a hard disk, and the reason is as follows:

1)Over time, after much use, hard disks develop Faulty areas.
2) Modern Disk controling software recognises these Faulty areas, and marks them as "Do Not Write to This Damaged Section Again", in order that no problems will be caused in future by these faulty areas.
3) There is now Private and Confidential data written to the Faulty areas of the disk before they became Faulty,which cannot be read by normal equipment but can be read by specialist Data Recovery equipment.

The problem is that programs like Darik's Boot and Nuke, East-Tec Eraser, Hiedi Eraser, R-Wipe etc can no longer overwrite the Private data in the Faulty areas in order to eliminate the Private and Confidential data in them - because the have been marked as "Do Not Write to This Damaged Section Again".

From what I understand, SecureErase is the only program there is that will overwrite the Private and Confidential information in the Faulty, Damaged Sections of the hard disk.

This is the only program, as far as I am aware, that will overwrite all the disk, including bad sectors, so eliminating all worries about data recovery.

 

If you have faulty areas (bad sectors) on a disk, you can tell because there will be a mysterious XX MB of "used" space on the disk even after a full wipe. In that case, you should just wipe it as best as you can and then physically destroy the disk. You wouldn't want to re-use a disk that has bad sectors on it anyway.

 

+1 there. Also for anyone that wants too you can use the ATA secure delete command on any linux OS if you don't trust 3-rd party software.

 

But why not use SecureErase to overwrite these "remapped blocks"?

By the way, I am no expert on these types of things, but I am wondering why not use SecureErase to erase the blocks that have been remapped by the disk controller software.

Have I got something wrong here?

The SecureErase Q & A word document says: "[SecureErase] completely erases all possible user data areas by overwriting, including the so-called g-lists that contain data in reallocated disk sectors (sectors that the drive no longer uses because they have hard errors in them). "

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/documents/QandAforwebsite10212008_000.doc

 

It'll probably work fine for overwriting certain faulty areas of the disk as you mentioned -- as long as those bad sectors have superficial errors only. But if a sector is actually damaged, then no program is going to be capable of writing to that area, as the hardware itself will fail.

 

I se what you mean; thanks.

 

What if you used all of the wiping options in R-wipe, then wiped the freespace, and then re-installed the OS?