Warming the Bed
i am selling my pc and i want to delate the things i have downloaded,so it ends up as just when i brought it as new, so what is the best way to do that please thanks
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pc help please
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Casanova
Quote by HuxleyNSusie
if you are worried about anyone recovering the information on you hdd you would be better off spending 30 quid and replacing the hdd altogether. It is a simple matter for anyone with a small amount of knowledge to recover information even after formatting the drive .or use a decent secure deletion program i reccomend downloading hirens boot disk which contains software to securley wipe the drive beyond the scope of simple recovery software.
Totally agree. I can recover information froma HDD after its been written over hundreds of times. But it depends on who you are selling it to...
I wouldnt think that someoen buying an 'old' PC will know how to recover the data. I would say format it and reinstall the OS.
Quote by Dune
if you are worried about anyone recovering the information on you hdd you would be better off spending 30 quid and replacing the hdd altogether. It is a simple matter for anyone with a small amount of knowledge to recover information even after formatting the drive .or use a decent secure deletion program i reccomend downloading hirens boot disk which contains software to securley wipe the drive beyond the scope of simple recovery software.
Totally agree. I can recover information froma HDD after its been written over hundreds of times. But it depends on who you are selling it to...
I wouldnt think that someoen buying an 'old' PC will know how to recover the data. I would say format it and reinstall the OS.
makes note - do not sell this PC I have here, to Dune!
Sex God
Quote by Dune
if you are worried about anyone recovering the information on you hdd you would be better off spending 30 quid and replacing the hdd altogether. It is a simple matter for anyone with a small amount of knowledge to recover information even after formatting the drive .or use a decent secure deletion program i reccomend downloading hirens boot disk which contains software to securley wipe the drive beyond the scope of simple recovery software.
Totally agree. I can recover information froma HDD after its been written over hundreds of times. But it depends on who you are selling it to...
I wouldnt think that someoen buying an 'old' PC will know how to recover the data. I would say format it and reinstall the OS.
Or you could always nacker the OS up before you sell it so the buyer will reformat it and put their own OS on it.
<<<< Feeling slightly evil today.
Deleting the partition and then a reformat will be enough. You will need some very expensive equipment to recover data after that. Still possible but very time consuming and expensive. Then again if you're selling it to a Police Data recoverer so they could use it for practice then it would be best to just slap in a new harddrive and ruin the old one. A strong magnet and sandpaper should do the trick.
This is a sort of change of subject - but it isn't really. It's about retention of information.
This proud possession is my new computer. It's "refurbished" and runs on Windows XP and has one year on site guarantee. It cost less that £250.
Shortly after I got it, I fired it up one morning and it told me it wasn't going to work. I can't remember what it said but it was something like "File 32 is missing or corrupt". Sorry if I've got that wrong - I've got it written down somewhere so I should be able to give an expert the information if needed.
Out came a very nice young man who showed me how to press "F11" and the computer came to life again. Took about half an hour. But all my information had been lost. I had a new-born computer again.
Then it went on strike about half a dozen times. F11 always works but I always lose my personal stuff. My solution is not to turn it off. It stays switched on all the time - although I do turn off the monitor.
Apart from telling me to argue with the suppliers - any advice? I'm intrigued by the idea that my information might not be lost.
Mollie
This proud possession is my new computer. It's "refurbished" and runs on Windows XP and has one year on site guarantee. It cost less that £250.
Shortly after I got it, I fired it up one morning and it told me it wasn't going to work. I can't remember what it said but it was something like "File 32 is missing or corrupt". Sorry if I've got that wrong - I've got it written down somewhere so I should be able to give an expert the information if needed.
Out came a very nice young man who showed me how to press "F11" and the computer came to life again. Took about half an hour. But all my information had been lost. I had a new-born computer again.
Then it went on strike about half a dozen times. F11 always works but I always lose my personal stuff. My solution is not to turn it off. It stays switched on all the time - although I do turn off the monitor.
Apart from telling me to argue with the suppliers - any advice? I'm intrigued by the idea that my information might not be lost.
Mollie
Hiya Mollie
I can't help other than what I'd suggested.
However what I would see about investing in is a pen drive to back your stuff up to. It is always sensible to back your data up to a removable source (eg CD, Diskette, pen drive).
Pen drives are quite inexpensive now - and very handy (about the size of a lipstick).
Hugs, Alex x
I can't help other than what I'd suggested.
However what I would see about investing in is a pen drive to back your stuff up to. It is always sensible to back your data up to a removable source (eg CD, Diskette, pen drive).
Pen drives are quite inexpensive now - and very handy (about the size of a lipstick).
Hugs, Alex x
maidinheaven
the fact that you keep having to press F11 for recovery meens that somewhere its faulty, it could of a few things, bad sectors on your hard drive, not being shut down properly ect ect
But at the end of the day, your computer isn't usable in an ordinary manor so therefore its not holding up to its guarantee...
My advise would be, don't try to fix it yourself, tell the peeps where you got it from that your not happy and come and sort it!
the fact that you keep having to press F11 for recovery meens that somewhere its faulty, it could of a few things, bad sectors on your hard drive, not being shut down properly ect ect
But at the end of the day, your computer isn't usable in an ordinary manor so therefore its not holding up to its guarantee...
My advise would be, don't try to fix it yourself, tell the peeps where you got it from that your not happy and come and sort it!
Master of Sex
Some information about getting rid of stuff permanently if you're interested....as has been said before in this thread, deleting or reformatting the disk doesn't actually erase stuff. Even doing an fdisk (if you know what that is) won't do the trick.
The only surefire way is to use commercial or open source tools specifically for this purpose. If you don't want to spend money, I'd recommend downloading a trial version of software, keeping your eyes peeled for freebie software that comes with computer magazines, or using an open source (i.e. free) programme.
One such tool I've used is called Eraser - not sure whether it's ok to post the URL directly here and I'm not suggesting this is the only or best tool to do the job, simply one of them that works. Try searching for "free data deletion software" in your favourite search tool to find one. There are also similar tools for anonymous browsing if you have any concerns about someone else snooping around to see what websites you've been looking at.
The only surefire way is to use commercial or open source tools specifically for this purpose. If you don't want to spend money, I'd recommend downloading a trial version of software, keeping your eyes peeled for freebie software that comes with computer magazines, or using an open source (i.e. free) programme.
One such tool I've used is called Eraser - not sure whether it's ok to post the URL directly here and I'm not suggesting this is the only or best tool to do the job, simply one of them that works. Try searching for "free data deletion software" in your favourite search tool to find one. There are also similar tools for anonymous browsing if you have any concerns about someone else snooping around to see what websites you've been looking at.
Alex and Shaz,
I think you are right. The proper course of action is "Dear Sir, This computer doesn't work right - send me another one please" and I'll do that.
But just one more thing. Don't bother to answer if you don't want. It crashed again this morning. F11 worked.
It said "A problem has been detected wth windows and has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to have been caused by the following file:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA"
Then a load of other stuff about re-starting the computer.
I tried that and it said:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrrupt; WindowsSystem32ConfigSystem"
I truly don't want an argument with the supplier but I think they are reputable - - it's just that if there's something I can fix myself then I'd like to do it without 0870 numbers and the like.
Any advice? From anybody?
Mollie
I think you are right. The proper course of action is "Dear Sir, This computer doesn't work right - send me another one please" and I'll do that.
But just one more thing. Don't bother to answer if you don't want. It crashed again this morning. F11 worked.
It said "A problem has been detected wth windows and has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to have been caused by the following file:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA"
Then a load of other stuff about re-starting the computer.
I tried that and it said:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrrupt; WindowsSystem32ConfigSystem"
I truly don't want an argument with the supplier but I think they are reputable - - it's just that if there's something I can fix myself then I'd like to do it without 0870 numbers and the like.
Any advice? From anybody?
Mollie
Sex God
does indeed sound like a disk fault (or at least an installation fault) Basically, NTFS is a method of storing the data on your disk, page files are temporary files used when transfering data round the system. i use specialist programs to keep mine running at top spec (norton utilities) but you should be able to check the disk for errors by going to Start, find the command promt (programs then accessories) and type chkdsk.
this shoud check the basics of your harddrive and may fix some basic errors
Pm me if you need more help, can't promise to fix it but will do what i can
this shoud check the basics of your harddrive and may fix some basic errors
Pm me if you need more help, can't promise to fix it but will do what i can
Sex God
Quote by maidinheaven
Is there a way I can send you a screen display?
Oh my word - just to talk to somebody knowledgeable.
Mollie
you could try a take a pic of the screen & post it here via imageshack.
my knowledge is just a thin veneer covering a shouting, swearing, computer kicking psycho crying on the phone to a good friend who is a real computer wizard
Sexlightened
Quote by maidinheaven
Is there a way I can send you a screen display?
Oh my word - just to talk to somebody knowledgeable.
Mollie
Make "print screen" (button close to delete ;) )>open Paint (start>accesories>Paint)>paste it as .jpg>u have a small pic. Now you can send sbody.
IMO....if you want to format very, very clearly - use HDD slow format.
xxx
P
