Donating Computer - Need to "clean" out all personal "stuff" -- Best Program(s) ?

My son is going to take his old desktop to his school to let a specific group use it.
We do not want to 'just reformat' since it's an older Sony that had Me on it originally (yuck) and we installed XP. If anyone has ever done this w/ a Sony, then they know how time consuming it was: you have to d/l many programs, drivers, etc; install some before XP and some after. In short, it's a chore.

Therefore, I'd like to use some program(s) that will help me completely delete programs and files from the HDD. Obviously, I want to make sure none of the data deleted can be recovered if someone were to go playing around (most of these folks are not very computer savvy, but I don't want to leave it to too much chance).

You folks have always been the BEST help to me in the past, and I'm looking forward to more of the same :>... any suggestions for reliable (hopefully free!) software to do this?

Thanks in advance!
Maggie

 

I dont think you will find a software program smart enough to delete what you dont want and keep what you want, use the remove option in the control panel, and go to my documents and delete your personal things. ed

 

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS-

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4221

 

that sounds like you're best bet.

Also, another furtive approach, which doesn't require use of programs, is to simply hide files and folders in parts of the computer people wouldn't normally check. For instance, whatever it is that you want to keep private and personal, I would rename the file(s)/folder(s) to something like "dkdjdi", turn that file into a "hidden" file (right mouse click the file/folder > properties > check-in HIDDEN) and then, in windows, assuming that you're computer literate, turn OFF "Show hidden files and folders". Then put that "dkdjdi" folder/file in a place on your computer like: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\INFFORMS\1032 and make sure all those files in your folder etc, DO NOT compose of any actual words like "maggie" or "diary".. etc etc ok lol

that's just what i'd do

 

i misread your message.. if you want to completely remove applications and files off your computer, it's very simple. Go into Add/Remove programs and remove whatever you'd like. Then go into "/Program Files" and delete any remains of whatever you uninstalled successfully. For files.. justt delete. what's the big deal?

 

I could be wrong, but I don't believe deleting/uninstalling files/programs removes such items from your system. It just allows newly entered data to be written over it.

 

If you want to secure erase then you will need a program like eraser.

For the purposes of this situation I think you may be worrying too much but anyway.

You can use eraser to erase specific files by right clicking them and selecting erase.

However in this situation you may have files that have already been deleted so can't be erased with eraser, what you should probably do is go through and delete all the files you don't want in the normal way (using windows), uninstal any programs. run CCleaner to delete all temp files. THEN use eraser to erase unused space on the drive. This will overwrite the parts of the drive that don't have 'real' files on overwriting the areas of the files that have been deleted using windows.

In this situation 3 passes will be enough to prevent a software recovery. In fact 3 passes is probably excessive. I can't imagine anyone will be dismantling the drive and examining it with file recovering hardware.

 

delete your system restore cache too, then re-enable

 

quite a contradiction. unless your computer is being seized by the FBI, i hardly doubt someone can recover something that has been permantely deleted from the computer without using system restore. i could be wrong also.

 

thisisu: actually Jud149 is correct. Deleting a file using windows does not physically remove the file from the hard drive. (I am not refering to the recycle bin either) The average user can recover files that have been deleted using windows using simple file recovery software that is freely available. All windows does is remove the 'pointer' to the file in its 'file table' the data from the file still exists until the driver clusters used are overwritten.

 

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and information. I did know that files were recoverable even if deleted -- hence my concern. I was aware of CC Cleaner (have used it before) but not aware of Eraser -- which I will try.

I'm not overly concerned since I know where the machine is going and who will have access to it; it's more that I just wanted to "do the right thing" before I took it up to school.

Once again, MG comes through for me!! Thanks!

Maggie

 

is there a problem to remove that stuff permantely? and how would i be able to retrieve stuff from the past? this is all new to me.

 

There is no problem removing it permanantly, have a look at the program I linked to above. The help file also links to several interesting articles about it too under advanced topics you might want to read

Have a browse through the file recovery section on majorgeeks listings, there are several tools for file recovery

 

Very interesting. I did not know this. Up till now, I've been using CCleaner with the "Normal File Detection" method of cleaning. Is there a way I can remove all the "crap" from months ago (when I only deleted it once) using the "Secure file detection (3 passes)". Where did all of that stuff go if it's not completly gone from my computer? Thanks in advance if you can enlighten me some more about this.

 

>> Is there a way I can remove all the "crap" from months ago (when I only deleted it once) using the "Secure file detection (3 passes)". Where did all of that stuff go if it's not completely gone from my computer? Thanks in advance if you can enlighten me some more about this. thisisu <<

Yes, there is a way... The freeware utility Cleaner 1.1 will accomplish this task quite nicely. The program securely deletes file data, located in "free disk space." Additionally, this useful utility will securely clean ALL of the old files which were deleted "normally" - not just the ones from a few months ago.

Using Cleaner 1.1 does not alter, delete or bother any files except those in the "free disk space" (the space on your computer's hard drive where all of your files go after normal deletion). After using this tiny tool; the restoration of the information located in free disk space becomes impossible.

Very Important Note: This process takes a little time; anywhere from an hour to a few hours to complete. Additionally, you should not initiate this process and use your computer at the same time. Therefore it is best done either overnight or when you are away from your computer for a few hours.

Good Luck!