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2nd hand laptop

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Rookery

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Oct 17, 2010
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I've got an old laptop gathering dust and I want to sell it. I've read that for security reasons I should remove the hard drive. Is this the best way or is there an alternative?
 
Killdisk is good, it's part of hirens boot cd. Download a copy, burn it to a blank disk and then you can boot your laptop with it and wipe your hard disk, there are also some other disk wiping utils on there too.
 
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Is this really going to be worth it once you have done all this?

I would say 1st up try and sell it to somebody that you know and so who wouldn't take advantage of your data should it turn up.

You will probably spend a good amount of time doing this and 2nd hand laptops arent really worth much!
 
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Shocking advice.

It crucial to properly wipe out your HDD regardless where pc goes to as you never know where it may end up since you no longer control it.

Disk erasers are free & easy to use:
1 find and download
2 install
3 run and set off the process
4 wait until it's completed

Points 1-3 take 15mins to complete. Point 4 will take a few hours depending on HDD capacity but no attention is necessary.

Always wipe out your data!
 
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I'd be more worried giving mine to someone I know than a stranger. If my friends and family knew what I did online at 2.00am I'd be ostracized! :lol:
 
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I meant still do your best to wipe it but more that it's a massive hassle and won't be worth much when you sell. People sure are cranky on here. These days!
 
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I wouldn't even use software to wipe the drive, I'd just take the hard drive out and smash it up. Hard drives really aren't that expensive these days.
 
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Thanks all. I've just bought a precision screwdriver set (£2.09) and removed a cover plate on the back which has revealed a polished silver thingy that says Hitachi Travelstar and a load of nunbers and letters on the label. On googling the details, it seems that this is indeed the hard drive and it just slides out which is nice and easy. I expected it to be a lot more complicated than that. Just before I consign this part to oblivion, please will someone confirm that this is the actual part. Thanks in advance.
 
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Just a thought, do you have a copy of your operating system to put back onto it before you sell it ?. Depending upon the age, you may have to make a set of recovery disks first so that you can re-install...

If you don't then you could consider using Ubuntu ( Linux) as it's free and easy to use.
 
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Rookery said:
Thanks all. I've just bought a precision screwdriver set (£2.09) and removed a cover plate on the back which has revealed a polished silver thingy that says Hitachi Travelstar and a load of nunbers and letters on the label. On googling the details, it seems that this is indeed the hard drive and it just slides out which is nice and easy. I expected it to be a lot more complicated than that. Just before I consign this part to oblivion, please will someone confirm that this is the actual part. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest wiping the content out, it's sufficient. It'll be more difficult to sell your laptop without hdd and the price will be dramatically low. Drop me a pm, i can advise on relevant software and necessary steps.

Also- you've identified the right part, it's hdd.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using UK Business Forums
 
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Rookery said:
Thanks all. I've just bought a precision screwdriver set (£2.09) and removed a cover plate on the back which has revealed a polished silver thingy that says Hitachi Travelstar and a load of nunbers and letters on the label. On googling the details, it seems that this is indeed the hard drive and it just slides out which is nice and easy. I expected it to be a lot more complicated than that. Just before I consign this part to oblivion, please will someone confirm that this is the actual part. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Yes thats the hard disk, how are you planning to destroy it ?
 
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Paul_Rosser said:
Yes thats the hard disk, how are you planning to destroy it ?
Click to expand...
I thought 10 minutes in the deep fat fryer, a quick slap with a hammer then park my van on it, in a puddle. Or I could just slice it in half with the angle grinder.
To the other replies, yes I accept it would be worth more with a hard drive but I havent got the knowledge to do all that or the disc thingies so I'm happy just to get rid of it, even if I only get a pound.
 
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Rookery said:
I thought 10 minutes in the deep fat fryer, a quick slap with a hammer then park my van on it, in a puddle. Or I could just slice it in half with the angle grinder.
To the other replies, yes I accept it would be worth more with a hard drive but I havent got the knowledge to do all that or the disc thingies so I'm happy just to get rid of it, even if I only get a pound.
Click to expand...

Since you've already got necessary tools, I suggest you carefully disassemble it and then dispose all individual parts and components in different locations across the country.
;)

On a serious note - frying it won't make too much damage, driving over either. Well, at least if someone was desperate enough in trying to recover the data. An angle grinder does sounds like a proper tool though - just make sure magnetic disks are properly treated.
 
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If it's old enough for windows 98 I'd be interested, some program's I use need dos, not a dos emulator true dos
 
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