July 11, 2014
Hello everyone!
I want to give my old computer running Windows 7 to a friend of mine but of course I first want to wipe clean any of my personal information.
He is an older gentleman, and just wants to be able to turn on the PC to do a little bit of surfing the net now and then.
I don't want to do a "factory reset" and have him to do all the "setting up".
What would be the best and easiest way to have the PC all set up for him to use....minus my personal data?
Thank you.
July 31, 2012
Hi Myles,
There are a number of ways to approach this.
Since you only want to get rid of your personal data, and your friend doesn't sound like he'd have the technical know-how to recover deleted data, you could simply go through all the folders containing your data and delete them.
This would not actually remove the data, however. If you truly want it to be difficult to recover, then a multi-pass "wipe" of those sectors would be needed. There are several free utilities available that will do this for you (CCleaner, included).
Don't forget to uninstall your licensed programs, as well.
The above suggestions are going to be time-consuming and you still won't be truly certain that you've covered everything. Windows places bits and pieces all over the place.
Really, the right way to do this would be to run a full format on the drive and re-install Windows. A "reset" is not enough.
I know that isn't what you wanted to hear,
Richard
July 11, 2014
Richard Pedersen said
Hi Myles,
There are a number of ways to approach this.
Since you only want to get rid of your personal data, and your friend doesn't sound like he'd have the technical know-how to recover deleted data, you could simply go through all the folders containing your data and delete them.
This would not actually remove the data, however. If you truly want it to be difficult to recover, then a multi-pass "wipe" of those sectors would be needed. There are several free utilities available that will do this for you (CCleaner, included).
Don't forget to uninstall your licensed programs, as well.
The above suggestions are going to be time-consuming and you still won't be truly certain that you've covered everything. Windows places bits and pieces all over the place.
Really, the right way to do this would be to run a full format on the drive and re-install Windows. A "reset" is not enough.
I know that isn't what you wanted to hear,
Richard
Thank you very much Richard. I really do appreciate the advice.
I will attempt to use CCleaner to "wipe" the files several times.
That should be sufficient.
July 31, 2012
I believe there is CCleaner setting that lets you choose the number of passes it will use for the "wipe".
Don't quote me on that 😉
September 17, 2008
myleswest. You might also want to include a program called PrivaZer. It also has a setting to totally overwrite sensitive data so it can no longer get recovered.
You should purge all your information stored by your browsers. Delete you history, pages visited, cookies, etc. Remember just because you're offering your computer to a non tech savy person, this does not mean it might get passed onto some who is tech savy. It is better to be more cautious when dealing with personal information.
Depending on just what information you have stored, what you used the computer for, like personal banking etc, doing exactly what Richard suggested "run a full format on the drive and re-install Windows", is the best solution for a good nights restful sleep, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
October 9, 2018
The combo of CCleaner + Malwarebytes is quite robust for various data clearing.
July 26, 2019
Thanks all for your responses. i was having similar questions and your answers were helpful to me. I am using this Online Integral Calculator. It might be gathering cache since i had started using it. How to clear that cache on pc?
December 26, 2019
Return to the Control Panel and then click "Add or Remove User Accounts." Click your user account, and then click "Delete the account." Click "Delete Files," and then click "Delete Account." Keep in mind that this is an irreversible process and your personal files and information are erased.
Moderators
April 29, 2013
And so will your ability to log into your PC unless you create another user admin account, before deleting the account. I suspect Windows might complain if you try to delete your own user account, and the only way that I see to delete your user account is to log into the built in Administrator Account, and it might let one do this. You would still take a chance of Windows logging into a Temp Account, and that isn't good.
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