Need Help Removing Personal Information from Computer

Question

Our beloved Dell desktop is no longer working...I believe due to a hard drive problem.We have ordered a new one, and would like to give our old one to our friends children.I'm unable to get into the computer, even using the Safe Mode. I would like to remove all of our personal information before giving it away. Since the hard drive needs to be replaced anyway, would just removing it solve our problem ? Is our information also stored elsewhere ??I'm sorry if this is a crazy question....my computer knowledge isn't top notch !!! Thank you !! Tammy

Kanuk001 · Answer

I assume you are giving away the computer and not just the hard drive. If you cannot access the data on the hard drive, then most likely they will not be able to, either.

Howver, to be safe, simply try to reinstall the Operating System, from scratch. It will give you the option of formatting the hard drive (which you should.) It would seem that, given your symptoms, that this will fail, also.

Then simply remove the hard drive and deep-six it.

TammyP · Answer

Hi Charles,

Yes, we're giving away the entire computer set-up. I just wasn't sure if our information is stored elsewhere, other than the hard drive (probably a dumb question !). If we're safe just removing the hard drive and giving them the rest of the system, I will be happy, with peace of mind.

I was able to have enough "warning" that there was a problem with our computer and backed up everything on disc, so I'm not concerned with getting back into the system for that purpose. The computer has served us well, so hopefully with a little TLC, our friends kids can use it.

Thanks for your help, Have a great night !

Tammy

vmansd · Answer

If you remove the hard drive, there is nothing remaining in the computer that holds any data. You're safe as long as you have possesion of the drive.

If the drive is nonfunctional, the risk of someone getting data off of it is small, unless they make use of one of the firms that specialize in data recovery. (They've gotten data off drives that have been burned, gunshot, and abuse in many other extremem ways!) To be sure the data is unrecoverable, open the drive, remove the platter(s), and do your darndest to them ( sanding, grinding, high power magnets, fold, spindle and mutilate) Or just hang them in the garden to chase away birds with their very high reflectivity.

Val

TammyP · Answer

Thanks Val !!!

I feel more comfortable now knowing our information won't be transferred along with the rest of the computer.

I'll save the old hard drive as Theraputic Therapy and destroy it slowly...LOL !!!

Tammy

gudgeon · Answer

If I need to dispose of a hard drive, I take a power drill and put a hole through it - it would take a very determined thief to get anything useful after that! (and it's quite therapeutic!)

Cybervee · Answer

A co-worker of mine once retrieved critical data from a dead hard drive by spinning it manually (by hand), so don't think that someone couldn't come up with a creative way to steal your data.

I take my obsolete hard drives and smash them with a sledge hammer - on both sides. Once the circuit board is destroyed, and the platters themselves are bent and smashed, it would take a government agency with lots of time and resources to get your data.

shesagordie · Answer

TammyP   If you have any ' Critical' data on the hard drive, then open the drive and destroy the platters.   Bev.

vmansd · Answer

Yes, don't let any disks that might have, at any time, held sensitive data get loose!!

http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=392&tag=nl.e539

Bad guys seem to be buying used drives/computers and digging kind of deep for any usable information.

Maybe I should learn to weld, and form my old drives into some kind of new age sculpture.

Val

Storage, Drives & Media

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