ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
I have an office desktop I need to get rid of. Very good unit, I just don't need it any more. What is the best way to clear data and still make it usable to a buyer, if any.
Old Desktop
- Thread starter ptonsparky
- Start date
Krusscher
Senior Member
- Location
- Washington State
- Occupation
- Electrician
Can look up whatever version of windows it is and how to reformat it.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
A very good free drive wipe tool is dban.
dban.org
Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN
Erase hard drives, desktops, laptops or servers free with a Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) download. Try it now.
dban.org
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Do you want to also erase the operating system or just your data? Wiping the entire drive makes it rather unusable without reinstalling the OS.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
Just data.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
Can I even give away working desktops these days?
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Schools, libraries, and charities often take good & usable computers.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
Problem is that when you only delete data the files are still on the drive but the space has been marked to be overwritten in the future. That means that it can easily be recovered with free software. Nuking the entire drive and reinstalling the OS is the only safe way to ensure that it cannot be recovered.
There are file “shredders” that can wipe out your data files without disturbing the OS.
ruxton.stanislaw
Senior Member
- Location
- Arkansas
- Occupation
- Laboratory Engineer
You could consider to keep the hard drive(s). Getting a cheap SSD is one of the biggest improvements the person can make to an old computer anyhow. Often disk seek latency and throughput is the biggest bottleneck on older systems compared to modern storage.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
The desktop I want to retire has been updated to a SSD drive.
I just junked two older ones and gave 160 & 500 GB SATA drives to my brother. In case he needs them.
I just junked two older ones and gave 160 & 500 GB SATA drives to my brother. In case he needs them.
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Some of the drive cleaners will wipe unallocated space (left over from deleting files).