Hi guys, I was thinking about how to avoid identity theft when selling a laptop on and wanted to see what others thought was the best way? (other than bitlocker)
1. Delete all personal data (temp internet files, docs etc) 2. run cipher.exe /w on your disks 3. rebuild

John Bradbury wrote:

Look on the net for a copy of the free DBAN (Dariks boot & nuke) & create a nuke CD. Boot from it & type "autonuke" & it will wipe a disk completly. Used it myself today infact :-) Don't bother with deleting or formatting, just run this app it'll wipe it all.
Note that I think it wipes ALL disks in the machine not just C so make sure any you don't want to wipe are disconnected.

How sensitive is the data and how paranoid are you?
Formatting and reinstalling if the risk if minimal. You could write zeroes to the drive multiple times reducing the possibility of data recovery. Given appropriate resources, the data can be recovered regardless of what procedure you use on the drive. There is always a chance if the possessor of the drive has the resources.
The other extreme, buy another hard drive and reinstall the system on the new drive. Keep the old hard drive reducing the possibility to absolutely 0% of the buyer getting access to any of your old data.
Jupiter Jones [MVP] www3.telus.net/dandemar dts-l.org
"John Bradbury" wrote in message

I second DBAN. It can wipe a hard drive to DoD standards. You can still get data off, but it better be damn good data, as it's going to cost a fortune and lots of time to get it back.
Completely wipe it out and reinstall Windows is about the best way to do it.
Dustin Harper dharper vistarip.com vistarip.com
"Otto Normalverbraucher"

Dustin Harper wrote:

I believe there's no longer any such thing. As far as DoD (and the security industry) are concerned the only safe way to remove data from a disk is to physically destroy the disk.
Alun Harford

Buy and install a new hard drive, rebuild the OS on the new hard drive, and then sell the laptop. You can then either take the old drive and put it in an external drive housing or smash it with a hammer.
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper gmail.com * NEW! Catch my blog ... msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/ * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * The Website - rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
"John Bradbury"