Quick PC techie question

[locksmith]

If you use a restore function to return the OS to the factory settings of the day it was delivered would there still be hidden old data stored on the hdd?
 
Asking because I was thinking of taking it down the charity shop.

[John Silva]

Yes! data would still be on the hard drive.
Best thing to do would be to take out the hard drive and destroy it.

[Phil TK]

 it's a nice idea donating a computer, they are very much needed.
You could try downloading the free 'Renamer' programme and set it to rename every file on the computer as filename.xxx then delete the lot. The data will still be on the disc somewhere but if someone managed to recover the files they'd have no idea what is needed to read them. I've never done this myself but it should work. I smashed my last old hard drive but wish I'd donated it.

[imax]

ccleaner http://download.cnet.com/CCleaner/3000-18512_4-10315544.html has numerous options for erasing data. Easiest one would be to reinstall the OS, then use ccleaner to wipe the free spaces properly.

[locksmith]

That looks the job imax, I'll give that a go when I get 5 minutes - probably 5 hours

[Lazarus]

if you actually have the Windows OS disk (as opposed to the recovery disk) then re-installing the OS would be the easiest way of doing this.

During this install, there is the option to REFORMAT the drive - this will clean all the data from it.

Do you know what OS it is? if you dont have a disk, i could fire one down to you as long as you have the license key.

[locksmith]

No discs at all. used the recovery option on the hdd!  cheers for the offer though :thumb up

Using the drive cleaner as we speak, taking around 3 hours by the look but at least I can recycle the PC now.
Got another one to do now as my son has cleared his room and no longer wants a PC  in there now. That has a recvery option as well so I will do the same with that one when I got 10 hours spare

[locksmith]

Forgot to say once recovered I plugged in to the net and updated windows so it will up to date for a new owner as well!

[slappy]

I was always told that the only way to truly "erase" a hard disk is to destroy it physically with a large hammer so that it cannot be used at all,as data always remains on it even after formatting or using a cleansing program.

[goldfazer]

If you use a proper program (I used to use eraser) it writes to each byte several times with a different pattern, as the 'real' pros can actually detect what the value 'used' to be. But that's a bit excessive. Now I just put 'em on the fire for a bit, or use the lumop hammer as by the time I get rid of them they're old enough to be ridiculously small by current standards.