Posted on 04/15/2011 9:56:34 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
I have a friend willing to GIVE me a free laptop but wants assurances it will be thouroughly wiped 1st.
since I have no deniro , is there an easy , free , portable way I can take something to his locale to do this there and in person so he can see that it's done?
(not a computer guru so a step by step printable guide would be best)
thanks in advance to all . my previous FRiends have been quite helpful in computer matters.
(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...
Reformat it. That should be good enough for him, unless he is in trouble with the NSA.
I heard an IT type mention to do a format on the hard drive.
A new hard drive is pretty cheap. I bought one for under $50 and installed it myself and I have minimal skills.
However a laptop may be a whole other animal.
Google - reformat the hard drive.
easy on a PC, not so much on a laptop.
Plenty of freeware out there ,, This may not be the best but it’s the first I found ... http://filehippo.com/download_eraser/
If he’s that worried, have him keep the drive and you purchase a new (probably much larger) one for around $60. They’re really not difficult to install.
Google “DBAN”. Free and easy!
Windows? Mac OS X? Linux?
Well, there's wiping a hard drive, and there's really wiping a hard drive.
C:format
Happy Friday WB!
I have a tech-related question of my own....I have a Dell Dimension 4550 and the BIOS is A03....I tried to get the BIOS upgrade from Dell but to no avail.Guess my computer’s too outdated (2002)....There is an upgrade file (BIOS A08) on the Dell website but I can’t access it-it will download but when I try to open it,I get a message that says “No files available to download”...guess Dell doesn’t support Windows XP anymore. The Microsoft site was no help at all.I have Windows XP Home Ed.Can I get a bootable disk someplace so I can upgrade my BIOS? I’m not geek-level so I need it to be as simple as possible. Any ideas?
The best (only?) way to truly wipe a hard drive so that it would pass an FBI scan, is to replace it with a new one.
So many hidden records on a hard drive, you wouldn’t believe it. BTW, erasing a file does not erase the file. It just erases the index address to it.
Wiping a disk does not wipe a disk. With the right scan, authorities can see what was on the disk before it was wiped depending on the memory retention characteristics on the bit level.
New drive, destroy the old is the only way to be certain.
I have all my financial information on my hard drive and all my client data, which I am duty bound to keep confidential. If I gave away my computer I'd want to be sure all that information was gone. Wanting the hard drive to be clean doesn't mean anyone has done anything wrong.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.