Keeping your laptop as clean as possible for resale using Linux

[ClearSummersDay]

Keeping your laptop as clean as possible for resale. I have a laptop to sell off. Thing is, I don't know whether or not to replace the ram stick in the laptop. I have sensitive documents on USB drives and I access them with Linux Ubuntu or other Linux OS types/versions. I've often extracted files on the Linux desktop. Where is the space for that if the HDD is unattached? It could be stored temporally or permanently ether on the ram sticks or the USB flash drive used to access the Linux OS.

 

[ClearSummersDay]

tumbleweed.

 

[jmacavali]

I'm fairly certain that nothing is ever stored on the RAM stick. If you extracted things to the desktop, then they are on the Hard drive. If you've opened things from a flash drive then they are stored in a temp folder on the hard drive (i think).

Safest thing to do is to wipe the disk with a disk wipe program. I like diskwipe.exe (though you do have to hook the hard drive up to another computer using a USB to SATA/IDE adapter).

 

[Jesusfrk611]

If you're running a live CD it should all run off RAM. Worse case scenario you take out the hard drive, boot up to a live CD, try to extract and it doesn't work. Give it a try. If that's what i'm understanding that you are asking.

Anything in RAM is gone as soon as the computer is turned off. If you're worried about someone getting your documents, zero out the hard drive.