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I have an old laptop...not too old...that is in perfect working order. I also have a rather poor, elderly friend who has a pitiful laptop that badly needs to be replaced. She can't afford to buy even a cheap one.
What I would like to do is have the computer disc wiped totally clean (I had banking and financial records on it and -- gasp -- maybe even a little "adults only" material), then get Windows reinstalled. How much is that kind of a job probably going to cost me?
I have an old laptop...not too old...that is in perfect working order. I also have a rather poor, elderly friend who has a pitiful laptop that badly needs to be replaced. She can't afford to buy even a cheap one.
What I would like to do is have the computer disc wiped totally clean (I had banking and financial records on it and -- gasp -- maybe even a little "adults only" material), then get Windows reinstalled. How much is that kind of a job probably going to cost me?
Is there anything else I need to know?
Make/model of laptop? Version of Windows it came with?
i would just create a gparted live-usb.
boot into the usb (setting up the pc's bios to boot up from usb mite be tricky depending on model).
delete partitions.
boot into the windows cd-rom (setting up the pc's bios to boot up from cd-rom mite be tricky depending on model).
follow the prompts to install windows.
extra credit:
due to the sensitivity of the data, if you want to prevent people from un-deleting the partition, i would use dd to write 00's on the whole device; then overwrite the device again with the content of /dev/random; then overwite it once again with ff's.
Last edited by stanley-88888888; 10-14-2016 at 06:58 PM..
What do you think your elderly, poor friend will do to discover the data if you simply format the drive then install Windows? Unless she's a geek or spends time trying to learn how to search for deleted data the chances are about zero that she will ever find anything.
I have an old laptop...not too old...that is in perfect working order. I also have a rather poor, elderly friend who has a pitiful laptop that badly needs to be replaced. She can't afford to buy even a cheap one.
What I would like to do is have the computer disc wiped totally clean (I had banking and financial records on it and -- gasp -- maybe even a little "adults only" material), then get Windows reinstalled. How much is that kind of a job probably going to cost me?
Is there anything else I need to know?
It'll probably cost more than if you'd just buy a new HD and keep/crush your old one ($40 or so for a 320-500GB drive) and not worry about it.
What do you think your elderly, poor friend will do to discover the data if you simply format the drive then install Windows? Unless she's a geek or spends time trying to learn how to search for deleted data the chances are about zero that she will ever find anything.
^probably. but considering it takes little effort to make it impossible...
what if she has problems with it and takes it to someplace like geek-squad ?
I have an old laptop...not too old...that is in perfect working order. I also have a rather poor, elderly friend who has a pitiful laptop that badly needs to be replaced. She can't afford to buy even a cheap one.
What I would like to do is have the computer disc wiped totally clean (I had banking and financial records on it and -- gasp -- maybe even a little "adults only" material), then get Windows reinstalled. How much is that kind of a job probably going to cost me?
Is there anything else I need to know?
The cost depends on where you take it to get the job done as there is no set price for this type of work.
^probably. but considering it takes little effort to make it impossible...
what if she has problems with it and takes it to someplace like geek-squad ?
Good point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaypee
It'll probably cost more than if you'd just buy a new HD and keep/crush your old one ($40 or so for a 320-500GB drive) and not worry about it.
I like this idea a lot.
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