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Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems. |
I have an old laptop that I want to dispose of. It has Windows XP installed. I have wiped the data using a cleaning utility, but I want to leave the hard drive completely empty, with not even Windows on it. Can I use the installation CD just to boot Windows and format the drive without installing anything on it?
PS: No reply needed – I found and used this, which worked well.
http://www.dban.org/download
This is a topic that’s revisited almost daily on one forum or another.
Being in the computer business I’m getting PC’s all the time that people no longer want, but have a lot of good life left in them.
I clean out all the personal information, remove any programs that were specific to the owner, like Quicken, Quick Books Pro, etc.
I leave Works or Office and Adobe reader, etc.
Then I tweak and tune the computer for optimum efficiency and sometimes even add some more ram.
Then I change the owners name to something like “Joe” or “Al” and do a very thorough cleanup of the PC, removing all the junk
files and then do a defrag.
Now the PC is ready to be donated to a needy person, student, etc.
Wiping a Hard drive clean, especially on a Laptop is akin to destroying it. Getting all the hardware drivers for an older laptop can be a real nightmare.
So leave the OS and all the drivers, etc. alone and just take off the personal information and do a defrag which will overwrite that deleted info and the job of securing the PC is done.
Just a thought!
The Doctor 
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