How To Clean?

[Pitbul]

i was wondering if any of you knew a good HDD cleaner cuz im gonna sell my old used PC and i need something to clean it completely out. but i was wondering if i do this will it wipe out my OS as well???

[EsssBee]

Originally posted by Pitbul@28 June 2003 - 18:37
i was wondering if any of you knew a good HDD cleaner cuz im gonna sell my old used PC and i need something to clean it completely out. but i was wondering if i do this will it wipe out my OS as well???
PgP is good for wiping data off your pc.
it will wipe a whole disk, just free space or indivdual files

Esss

[Pitbul]

any other good Hard Drive Earasers? that will leave my OS there but wipe everything else out?

[striker]

I use drivescrubber by iolo. They also the makers of system mechanic. Just put the app on a stiffy and there you go. When you finish erasing the hd, it is like new and the next user must format it again to be usable. All the info are erased and there is nothing the be recovered. You can choose your own settings that suite your needs.

http://www.iolo.com/ds/

[Pitbul]

how wouold i reformat and since everything is erased does that mean i can put any OS i want on it? or is there some way i can have it erase everything but my OS?

[Livy]

your best bet is to format and do a clean install, then uve got rid of stuff and the new owners has a shiny new install of windows.

[balamm]

Originally posted by Pitbul@28 June 2003 - 21:42
is there some way i can have it erase everything but my OS?
No. All your history and settings and passwords would still be in the OS.

[Wolfmight]

just reinstall windows after... If u keep yours.. your gonna miss something (plus the registry)

[EsssBee]

just a word of advice on this though. if your gonna sell your pc you will need to erase totally any sesative info on your drive that you do not want other to get hold of
a simple format wont erase the data. it only deletes the file allocation table and the first few bytes of each file. so the whole drive can be recovered by the new owner

to totally delete these files you will need to use an app like some of the ones suggested here to guarentee that stuff is gone. usually it takes 3 or 4 times totally writing over a sector on a hard drive for the data to be totally erased.

think password lists bank details personal e mails receipts of online purchases and other stuff that you wouldnt like others to get hold of. and make sure there is no trace left for this stuff to fall into the wrong hands.

[Neo 721]

You may just be able to use the system restore option on windows tools someware.