compound problem:
1. wife promised her old laptop to her friend
2. needs to do thorough security wipe of hdd to make personal information unrecoverable
3. she has long forgotten her access password
4. she lost the win xp installation cd
therein lies my entire conundrum
how would you computer geeks tackle the problem?
tia
john, i downloaded 'peppermint' now what? i need details please. and after installation, will credit card and banking information be truly unrecoverable?
You reformat your hard drive when installing, nothing left on there.
On my laptop the only thing I had to do was enable networking, by clicking, but I've a different flavour.
Citaat:
You reformat your hard drive when installing, nothing left on there.
I'm afraid even a formatted harddrive can be restored. Don't ask me how, I'm not into IT all that deep anymore. There are programs to wipe a HDD clean by writing checker patterns on it. That means filling the HDD with a 01010101-pattern, then filling it with 1010101010, filling it with 01010101 etc. That way all the bits have flipped several times leavin no info at all on your HDD. I did a quick Google-search for you and came up with this one.
I have no experience whatsoever with this program, nor do I have any experience with this company. In other words I do not endorce this software. The provided link is just to show there are programs that deal with your problem.
I'm not that paranoid. If you are giving the computer to a hacker oh well.
I don't agree that someone random is going to take your computer and spend a whack of time trying to get at your card info, and actually make some money from it.
i agree that formatting DOES NOT DESTROY DATA it merely adds a unique character to the file header. an identity thief can recover everything on the drive in one fell swoop, unfortunately. this led me to read the various security algorithms used by military. some overwrite data with zeros followed by random numbers then repeat the whole process up to 27 times. it may take several days!
in the DOS era, you could look at "deleted" files in notepad, see the spurious changes, change them back to their original state (or province) and execute the file. also, there exist numerous "unformat" and recovery apps that will do an excellent job of recovering data even if it has already BEEN OVERWRITTEN!
I will give my unused PC's and or laptops to people who need them more than I do. But I will remove the HDD or I will erased the HDD so that none of my info will ever be found again.
And I don't even have a creditcard...
I have a credit card and intend on using it in Amsterdam around the first of May. My neighbours think me Dutch anyway, there are 300 bulbs in the front garden. Now if the squirrels didn't take some of them I'd have way more. I found one on the snow and the wife said, look the tulips are up! Darn squirrels.
Don did say his wife was giving the laptop to a friend.
What kind of friend is going to use the computer and steal your credit card number.
Now I suspect some enterprising person could write a script to copy a picture over and over until the hard drive was full, and then erase that.
My credit card number is not on the computer. It was entered once into Amazon, but I'm boycotting them now. They don't tell you a book is not available, they DO tell you your credit card is no good. I found out after they refused it 10 times, that the book is only available in the US at present so that is why they refused me. Morons.
Sounds whacked but just might work.
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"Don did say his wife was giving the laptop to a friend.
What kind of friend is going to use the computer and steal your credit card number."
john,
it's not the friend one has to concern over but someone stealing it from the friend. laptops are very popular rips among thieves and teens. btw, do you bank online?
I do. I used to have it set up to email me whenever a transaction for over 300 bucks went through. Now that I sit in a chair alone most of the day I can check my accounts and investments on line. It's very exciting seeing the pension cheques drop in, I get goosebumps.
I only have one concern about theft of stuff. To my knowledge, in the 23 years I've lived at this location there has never been a break in on the street, and we only lock our doors when on vacation, otherwise it messes with possible insurance. But my son always comes over and signs a log book every other day for me, checking my freezer and basement for leaks etc.
I do not leave anything in my car, not even a quarter. I've heard of people at the shopping mall having windows smashed, never happened to me. The new mini has a cool screen thing that closes with the hatch and makes it look like there is no little trunk at all which is kind of cool.
I'm probably not paranoid enough. Someone probably will tap my maple tree and steal my sap. I have a good raspberry patch too..you think...wait, the dang robins, did you know that robins eat raspberries? I watched them. I think I was looking at a family of those vegan robins, won't eat worms.
Citaat:
I have a credit card and intend on using it in Amsterdam around the first of May.
Skip Amsterdam (well, the Rijks Museum IS worth your while!). DO be careffull for skimmers where-ever you go! If you happen to be in the Netherlands on May 7th, you and your traveling companions are invited on my 40th birthday party. That will be something, given the fact that I never did care a d*ck for my birthday anyway 
Whenever you visit the Netherlands you are welcome to coffee, tea, beer, whiskey or whatever's your poison. Just let me know and I will make sure I'm home to welcome you!
Don, borrow a xp installation CD from a friend. Make sure it is the same version as the version you have that is home or Pro. This is ok as it is legal. Boot from the CD, format and install Windows. Don’t worry the just follow the prompts.
If you are worried about someone stealing your information you may want to buy this
program for $20
I have not used this but the docs look good.
Good luck.
That's an interesting program, WipeDrive. The $40 version allows you to clean everything else but leave the operating system.
Mike, May 8, do you celebrate VE day in Europe? I know it's a holiday in the UK. We will probably be in Edinburgh on May 1. Then who knows. I just thought of something, our local member of parliament will give anyone going to Europe a 100 lapel pins, better go get some.
That would mean a party 2 days in a row. Cool. My doc thinks I'll be able to more or less walk ok by then, I'm getting there now, just started walking without a cane, but I ordered a nice one with a hidden attachment in the handle you screw off to make it a monopod for photography.
I recently had to get rid of an old desktop computer. With my limited ability I removed the disk drive, and then I took Mac's good advice.
I hit it with a BIG hammer
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Here is an article that may provide the answers to solve your dilemma.
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-to-securely-erase-hard-disk-before.html
great info, thanks, jim.
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I recently had to get rid of an old desktop computer. With my limited ability I removed the disk drive, and then I took Mac's good advice.
I hit it with a BIG hammer
Bingo. For extra security, get out your drill, some cutting oil, set it on kinda slow and watch the chips slowly fly - right through all the platters.
New hard drives nearly free these days.
911 caller, they are shooting up the street.
Dispatcher, "that's ok, a guy up there is making his hard drive safe to dispose of...."
Wow, the question isn't "are you paranoid," it is (whispers, come closer..) "are you paranoid enough ..?"
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great info, thanks, jim
You're welcome, Don. BTW that should work with any Linux LiveCd you choose. If you haven't tried it yet, give Puppy Linux a go. I reboot with it any time I need to do any type of internet financial transactions, like banking.
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I recently had to get rid of an old desktop computer. With my limited ability I removed the disk drive, and then I took Mac's good advice.
I hit it with a BIG hammer
According to Mossad, best way to secure a hard drive is to drive over it with a tank.
"Ask the man who drives one."
R.
Citaat:
According to Mossad, best way to secure a hard drive is to drive over it with a tank.
"Ask the man who drives one."
You can borrow mine if you like. It's parked in the back yard, keys are in the ignition. 
G'day Don,
MarioD's advice is good:
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Don, borrow a xp installation CD from a friend. Make sure it is the same version as the version you have that is home or Pro. This is ok as it is legal. Boot from the CD, format and install Windows. Don’t worry the just follow the prompts.
but I would add copying some large files (rip some DVD's or something) to some working folders you create for the purpose and then recopying them to additional locations until you pretty much fill the drive. Now delete all the big files you copied around so you have free space again.
While it is still possible to recover old data after this process you need some pretty serious tools to do it - electron microscopes 'n stuff - don't think the average thief that would be interested in your wife's old notebook is likely to have access to this kind of gear.
Otherwise buy it a new HDD and apply a hammer to the old HDD as previously suggested. In reality, there are easier ways to steal banking and credit card details than trying to do HDD recovery.
Lawrie,
Regarding sophisticated tools. I recently drilled 3 holes completely through a discarded HD. I assume that would stop the average thief, but could data still be recovered by the experts?
Don S.
The tank works better!
A 10 lb. sledge hammer with multiple swipes would be the second choice.
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Lawrie,
Regarding sophisticated tools. I recently drilled 3 holes completely through a discarded HD. I assume that would stop the average thief, but could data still be recovered by the experts?
Don S.
To be honest, I don't know just how good these guys and their tools actually are. We're talking military grade/research level stuff.
I would imagine that even fragments of shattered glass platters could be coaxed to give up their secrets, but the cost of doing so would be so prohibitive that you'd really badly want to recover those holiday pic's...
One more vote for "Darryl's Boot and Nuke" - DBAN.