[GEOFF]

My daughter is donating her old pc running XP to a poor family in need of one that she does not know well. How to best erase the info on it to protect her security concerns? Is erasing all her programs, files and data secure enough. Someone told her the whole hard drive including the XP operating system had to be cleaned off or data she has erased can be receovered. Unfortunately she does not still have the XP disc that went with it. Any suggestions?

[mrss]

Well, if she erases the hard drive, the PC won't be worth much to a poor family that can't afford to buy the XP OS.

She can however, delete her personal files and use this program to erase the unused space. This free space contains the deleted files, most of which can be recovered unless their space is written over.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/

While it's capable of a secure erase, that will take a long time, maybe days. Set it up to write a single pattern once, and it's fast and will defeat all but the CSI types with specialized hardware.

If she has passwords stored in a browser like firefox, it will take some knowledge to clear them. Probably best to change all passwords.

[Frank4d]

I would normally suggest using a utility such as DBAN http://www.dban.org/ to wipe the drive. But since your daughter doesn't have an XP CD, and the family is poor, they may not be able to afford to buy XP. And so, a PC that doesn't work won't be much use to them.

In this case I would uninstall certain programs that store personal data using Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall pictures and data files from C:\Documents and Settings\Her_Username. Use a program such as 'IndexDat Suite' to remove cookies, Temp files and Internet history. Delete anything else that might be a security risk. Then use Heidi 'Eraser' to scrub the empty space on the hard drive.

Or if that seems risky, use DBAN to wipe the drive and tell the people they will need to buy XP.

[GEOFF]

Thank you for the advice and suggestions. I have emailed my daughter with the link to this thread and suggested she check it out and decide what to do. I will post any questions/comments she has.
G

[1002richards]

Hi,
Another option, your daughter could wipe XP and install Ubuntu (free Linux o/s).
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatI...desktopedition

Richard

[dhanubaba]

format pc and re-install OS

[RootbeaR]

Then get Open Office and any other apps they may need as not likely to afford internet or if they can will take three months to download.

[Elvandil]

Originally Posted by dhanubaba

format pc and re-install OS

Formatting and reinstalling will not remove important data from the drive.