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How Best To Wipe Hard Drive Clean Before Sending Back To Dell?
Hi -- I just rec'd my Precision M6400 laptop replacement machine for my Precision M90. Before sending the M90 back to Dell as required what is the best/easiest way to wipe clean the hard drive after I have backed it up? Actually I had purchased additional hard drive after purchase and I would love to just move it to the new machine! Is that possible? It of course would be great to just move it over into the M6400 as there's room to do so and avoid a lot of messing around after the mess of re-installing all the programs and getting the updates for them! Not to mention the extra external hard drive for storage would be great as this machine arrived with 80 Gigs.
Thanks in advance for any advise and direction on this situation.
Sue
ieee488
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May 5th, 2009 19:00
I'm not sure I understand you. Are you saying you bought an external hard drive?
For wiping the hard drive on the M90: http://www.dban.org/
You canNOT just move programs from one hard drive to another. You must re-install. Photos, etc can be copied over.
Leesha
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June 21st, 2009 19:00
Can/Should I use the same link to wipe my hard drive even if I only want to recycle the machine or give it to someone else?
ejn63
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June 22nd, 2009 06:00
Absolutely, yes.
Leesha
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June 24th, 2009 17:00
@ejn63 - I obviously need the 4th grade version of dban.org. I cannot get this thing to work for me. I have a Dell Dimension 4100 (purchased 12/27/2000) with Windows XP. What other options do I have to prepare my PC for Dell's recycling service?
Thank you,
Leesha
speedstep
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June 24th, 2009 18:00
http://www.whitecanyon.com/identity-theft-software.php
Leesha
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June 24th, 2009 18:00
Hi SpeedStep. Thanks for responding. I have downloaded/installed the DBAN software to a flash drive (drive F:\), and DBAN recognized the drive. I have changed the BIOS order three times in the hopes of getting the DBAN to boot from it, but to no avail. What else can I do? I'm obviously doing something wrong.
Thanks for your help.
Leesha
speedstep
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June 24th, 2009 18:00
http://www.dban.org/
Darik's Boot And Nuke
Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes
the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the
contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility
for bulk or emergency data destruction.
speedstep
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June 25th, 2009 06:00
Flash drives dont boot automagically.
1. Format a floppy disk with XP and use the option Make MSDOS Startup disk.
2. Use the HP USB Flash memory tool to format the flash drive and point to the Floppy for the "MSDOS" system files.
http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm
3. make the dban file sit in dos aka the autoexec.bat file and dbanxxxx file onto the flash drive.
4. turn off the machine, plug the flash drive into the back ports, turn it on and press F12 and select USB Booting.