Recovery disk help

[Tom Schindler]

Here is the story.



A friend of my father has a computer. It is an eMachine. It comes with a recovery disk. He wants to update his PC with a new one, and would like to sell his old one.



He wants to wipe his PC clean of all information to make everything unrecoverable.



I know one way is to simply break the partitions then make new ones then format.



First off, there is no information on his PC that is private. No bank information, not accounting information. Nothing personal like that.



Is it possible to run FDISK, break the partitions, then use the recovery CD to get the PC back running?



I have never dealt with a recovery CD. My Windows installs are a full install CD, so I know nothing about recovery CD and how they work or what they do.



Any information?





Tom

 

[A1cntrler]

As long as there isn't information that could be valuable to the next owner it shoud be fine. The problem withthe recovery discs is that they are loaded with crap. It will also install stuff that you don't want/need (free AOL trials, antivirus free trials, encyclopedias..) along with the OS. What I recommend you do (and what I have done) is use your copy of XP, and his license code onthe side of his PC. This way it is still "his licensed copy" but without all the extra crap that gets packaged in with the Emachines (or dell or HP or gateway..etc).

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen, personally I wouldn't go through the hassle of a reinstall if the owner is sure there is nothing sensitive on the PC. Instead, just go into My Documents and blow away everything, then lauch Internet Explorer clear the history and delete files and cookies. Lastly, remove any software using Add/Remove Programs that was installed via shrinkwrap that the owner wants to use on the new PC.



That's all I would do.



TJR

 

[Casey B]

FDISK is your best bet. You will also need to set the BIOS to boot from cd if the Emachines model will let you. The recovery disc may have a floppy to boot with?



I would definitely use a XP disc and just use his license. Those recovery discs do have a lot of unnecessary apps that clutter hard drives.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Tom and A1,



I know what I would do, but you know what it is like with someone that knows nothing about a PC, but watches the news about all those bad hackers.



I need to get this guy off my back about this. He wants to wipe all the information so the next buyer will not be able to get the sensitive information (that was never there in the first place).



Of course, anyone that know anything about a PC will not buy a used eMachine, but that is a different story.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen, I know what you mean. Good luck with that. The random driver and chipset issue and the licensing/activation issue would be the reason I wouldn't attempt a wipe and reinstall if it weren't necessary, and it seems not necessary in this case.

 

[Tom Schindler]

He has a recovery disk. My main question is how much prior information does a recovery disk need to do a recovery?



In other words, could you start with a unformated HDD and use the recovery disk to get the PC up and running?





Tom

 

[Scott Tanner]

fdisk will not erase stuff on your disk..... a good hacker can retreive it....... have this guy remove all of his files, then do a defrag a couple of times, then load a very large nonsense file to the hard drive and copy it until the drive is full........ do another defrag. move the large files around some more....... this will overwrite and info on the drive, and is free..... there are electronic drive 'shredders' available online that can do this also... HTH

 

[Dre L]

Caymen,



Get the guy to run the recovery CD to rebuild the operating system image on the PC.



Then download the file below and set it to run 3 passes and clean the free space for each drive. So if he has a C: D: and E:, he could make a batch file to run the following, as it will take a very long time.



sdelete -p 3 -z c:\

sdelete -p 3 -z d:\

sdelete -p 3 -z e:\



1. the OS recovery / rebuild will format and overwrite some clusters. Those disk clusters will not be recoverable. Make sure the PC boots off the CD.

2. anything not overwritten by data during the reload may be recoverable by your average person, and what is not, can be recovered for the right price or by the right person. that's whats sdelete is for.

 

[Wes Davis]

Then here is what I would do since it isn't your personal problem and you really don't need to spend anytime dealing with it. When you put the recovery cd in the drive it will ask you if you want to 'reformat and save all information' or 'reformat and return the computer to like new condition'. Choose the like new condition option and all of your friends info will be adequately erased. It (personal info) could still be brought up by a experienced computer hacker type guy until it is overwritten but this option is fine for a give away computer to a friend or something like that.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Yeah, Caymen, I somehow missed the part about you having the actual recovery disk for that particular computer. Just do what "Me" and others have said.

 

[Todd Z]

Could buy a cheep new hard drive, install it and go from there, then smash his old one with a hammer.,...

Todd Z

 

[Richard L]

I agree. If you have the recovery CD and there are no sensitive files on the PC, just run the recovery CD and it will take it back to how the computer came from the factory.



The only glitch is that the recovery CD's are made for a specific machine and will not function if the HDD was changed or upgraded. Nearly all will not work on other machines, so be sure you have the correct recovery CD for that PC and the HDD had not been upgraded, or it will not work.



...Rich

 

[Gavin Allan]

Recovery CD won't work if you upgrade the motherboard as well.



This really got me angry about six months ago. I had paid for everything and could not use it anymore.

 

[Tom Schindler]

I agree. If you have the recovery CD and there are no sensitive files on the PC, just run the recovery CD and it will take it back to how the computer came from the factory.

That is all I would do, but you know how it is. Someone that doesn;t have a clue about PC's watches the news and they talk about cyber crime, they all think someone is watching them waiting to buy their old PC to rip them off from personal information like web surfing habits and joke emails the get from everyone.

The only glitch is that the recovery CD's are made for a specific machine and will not function if the HDD was changed or upgraded. Nearly all will not work on other machines, so be sure you have the correct recovery CD for that PC and the HDD had not been upgraded, or it will not work.

What if all you did to the HDD is used FDISK and broke all partitions, then run the recovery CD? Would it work?





Tom

 

[Richard L]

Tom,

It's no problem if you did an FDisk or changed or deleted partitions. The recovery CD's will create the drive in the image it had when it left the factory.



If he is that paranoid, search the web for free utility programs that will erase any/all files you want and rewrite over them several times with randome characters.



That is about as secure as you can get unless someone from the CIA gets hold of the HDD. The CIA could probably tell you how many times a file was written, erased and overwritten, but then the average person cannot do that, and would not wish to go to that much trouble or expense.



One needs to evaluate the value of the information to someone else and take the appropriate security measures based on the value, risk, or consequences of the information falling into someone elses hands. If there is not value to the information, then there is no risk, or consequences, so little or no security precautions are necessary.



...Rich