windows xp pro

paul1968uk

Beta member
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3
Hi

Ive just sold my laptop and bought a new 1 but my question is do i have to do a clean install to remove my name from the laptop as i see it when i click start in the blue banner.

Thank you
 
You should be to change it in the user accounts settings in control panel. If there is any stuff on the computer that you dont want the other person getting access to, like bank details etc, then ya probably better doing a clean install
 
but if someone really talented buys the computer they can still get the data, even after a clean install...

If it is a mac, there is a feature in "Disk Utility" that allows you to write over the drive 32 times with Zeros (0) which if I'm not mistaken that is military grade, erasing...
 
yeah use killdisk to destroy all the data from the drive .this offers the best security as data can still be recovered from a clean install.
 
-Paul- said:
but if someone really talented buys the computer they can still get the data, even after a clean install...

If it is a mac, there is a feature in "Disk Utility" that allows you to write over the drive 32 times with Zeros (0) which if I'm not mistaken that is military grade, erasing...

The pentagon shreds their hdd's :), must be a pretty strong shredder...
 
paul1968uk said:
Hi

Ive just sold my laptop and bought a new 1 but my question is do i have to do a clean install to remove my name from the laptop as i see it when i click start in the blue banner.

Thank you

I recomend writing over the disk 13 times to make any sort of data recovery virtually impossible.

The pentagon may use shredders, but a 1/4" drill is also just as fun
 
yeah writing over it 13 times wirth 0's is as secure your gonna get without destroying the hard drive physically
 
This is all overkill to the average user tho, aint it? But if thats what ya wanna do then theres no harm in it.
 
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