you can try doing what i did. i just got rid of an old compaq computer that i dont think had anything in it that i wouldnt want anyone to find or see i put in the restore disk and it wiped out the hard drive and restored it back to brand new. then where it asked to put in a user password to get on i just left it blank. of course the computer guys i gave it to will probably wipe the hard drive clean again as i believe they donated it to a church. hope this helps you. im sure someone will have a better way of doing this but thats what worked for me.
Reinstalling XP may make the files invisible to the average user, but someone with knowledge may still be able to retrieve your bits and bytes.
There are freeware utilities that run from a floppy which wipe the entire hard drive by overwriting it multiple times. After you wipe it, you can reinstall XP and the appropriate drivers before donating it.
If it's only a few files, you can use the secure shredder in Spybot Search and Destroy (free), but you have to drag the files into the shredder window which can take time if there are lots of them. Spybot overwrites the files 5 times so they can't be recovered.
ps. i should of mentioned that the compac that i got rid of was running windows 98 and had programs on there that are considered ancient now. aol 4.0, ie 4.0, microsoft word 97, etc. all the poor old thing is good for now is probably playing games on it or for someone to learn how to use a computer on. i used it as a crash test dummy as its the first computer i ever used. boy am i glad to be rid of that thing. its so nice using my dells with windows xp. :)
throwing in my 2 cents here, to buy a new hard drive to put in a computer that your getting rid of seems a little much .one other thing you can try is have someone knowledgeable maybe just remove the hard drive and you keep it if you want to or if you dont want to keep it is smash it up where no one will be able to retreve anything as it would be destroyed. since your giving it away for free i assume let whoever gets it let them put in a hard drive. just a thought.
SUEBEE1
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March 19th, 2007 18:00
RoHe
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March 19th, 2007 19:00
There are freeware utilities that run from a floppy which wipe the entire hard drive by overwriting it multiple times. After you wipe it, you can reinstall XP and the appropriate drivers before donating it.
If it's only a few files, you can use the secure shredder in Spybot Search and Destroy (free), but you have to drag the files into the shredder window which can take time if there are lots of them. Spybot overwrites the files 5 times so they can't be recovered.
Ron
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March 19th, 2007 20:00
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SUEBEE1
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March 20th, 2007 00:00
SUEBEE1
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March 20th, 2007 00:00