I want to sell my old laptop-but I am afraid of leaving personal information on it

rhfarr · 10-19-2009, 11:08 AM

How can I be sure that I have deleted all personal information about me off of a laptop before selling it?

night_shift · 10-19-2009, 11:44 AM

You can buy software that will wipe your whole disc and free space, but would you still be paranoid that some low life identity thief might have even better software to recover it!

Remove the hard drive. Keep it and put it in a caddy for external storage or smash it up with a hammer and totaly destroy the disc.

Even from a smashed up hard drive, its amazing what can be recovered.

Me, personally I would remove the disc.............call me paranoid..........how valuable is your data????

10-19-2009, 11:08 AM	#1 (permalink)
rhfarr Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Lewistown, MT Posts: 19 OS: Windows XP Service Pack 3	I want to sell my old laptop-but I am afraid of leaving personal information on it How can I be sure that I have deleted all personal information about me off of a laptop before selling it?

10-19-2009, 11:44 AM	#2 (permalink)
night_shift Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Posts: 280 OS: Vista, XP Pro, Ubuntu	Re: I want to sell my old laptop-but I am afraid of leaving personal information on i You can buy software that will wipe your whole disc and free space, but would you still be paranoid that some low life identity thief might have even better software to recover it! Remove the hard drive. Keep it and put it in a caddy for external storage or smash it up with a hammer and totaly destroy the disc. Even from a smashed up hard drive, its amazing what can be recovered. Me, personally I would remove the disc.............call me paranoid..........how valuable is your data????