Clearing BANK info off of a PC.... How to?

Clearing BANK info off of a PC.... How to?
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Subject Author Date
Clearing BANK info off of a PC.... How to? David_nj_7 03-20-2007
Posted by on March 20, 2007, 9:41 pm
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A friend of mine had a PC (E-Machine) for a few weeks and she wants to
return it to the store for a refund.

The thing is... for a few weeks she did all kinds of PERSONAL
transactions, including some BANK transactions.

In simple terms... what would be the easiest way of removing all
personal information from the PC so someone else couldn't retrive it
at a later date?

Are there any FREEWARE programs to help wipe all the data off of the
hard drive? Do you really need to do that to be safe or are there
other "simpler" steps?

Thanks in advance

DAVID


PS: Someone actually suggested to her to physically remove the hard
drive and then put a magnet to it. There has to be a better way.


Posted by Roger Abell [MVP] on March 20, 2007, 10:51 pm
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Did she get a reset / install disk?

A delete partition, new partition, format followed by
install of system would not make any data that might be
there absolutely unretrievable, but it would make it lost
beyond normal means of noticing it and surely beyond
value of what someone might get for the coincidence of
noticing and reconstructing.


>A friend of mine had a PC (E-Machine) for a few weeks and she wants to
> return it to the store for a refund.
>
> The thing is... for a few weeks she did all kinds of PERSONAL
> transactions, including some BANK transactions.
>
> In simple terms... what would be the easiest way of removing all
> personal information from the PC so someone else couldn't retrive it
> at a later date?
>
> Are there any FREEWARE programs to help wipe all the data off of the
> hard drive? Do you really need to do that to be safe or are there
> other "simpler" steps?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> DAVID
>
>
> PS: Someone actually suggested to her to physically remove the hard
> drive and then put a magnet to it. There has to be a better way.
>



Posted by Juergen Nieveler on March 21, 2007, 4:16 pm
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David_nj_7@mailbolt.com wrote:

> Are there any FREEWARE programs to help wipe all the data off of the
> hard drive? Do you really need to do that to be safe or are there
> other "simpler" steps?

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Burn the ISO to a CD, boot from it, and erase the hard disk - how often
depends on how much time and paranoia you have ;-)

Juergen Nieveler
--
"We have struggle to not proceed but to preceed to the future of a
nation's child."
George W. Bush --Journal Gazette 11/12/00

Posted by Mark Randall on March 22, 2007, 6:46 am
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>David_nj_7@mailbolt.com> wrote:
> In simple terms... what would be the easiest way of removing all
> personal information from the PC so someone else couldn't retrive it
> at a later date?

Remove the hard drive and compensate the store you purchased it from. If you
really don't want the hard disk anymore then a plasma torch or thermite will
be preferable.

--
- Mark Randall
http://www.temporal-solutions.co.uk
http://www.awportals.com



Posted by Roger Abell [MVP] on March 22, 2007, 10:33 pm
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The probability of anyone buying an eMachine box from the
local store and thinking of, let alone successfully, looking for
reconstructable info after a repartition/format and refreshed
install is small, and their finding valued info vanishingly small.
Given the time and effort involved, this is probably also so
about the employees at store to which the box is returned.


>A friend of mine had a PC (E-Machine) for a few weeks and she wants to
> return it to the store for a refund.
>
> The thing is... for a few weeks she did all kinds of PERSONAL
> transactions, including some BANK transactions.
>
> In simple terms... what would be the easiest way of removing all
> personal information from the PC so someone else couldn't retrive it
> at a later date?
>
> Are there any FREEWARE programs to help wipe all the data off of the
> hard drive? Do you really need to do that to be safe or are there
> other "simpler" steps?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> DAVID
>
>
> PS: Someone actually suggested to her to physically remove the hard
> drive and then put a magnet to it. There has to be a better way.
>



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