Korean Job Discussion Forums

[richardlang]

Forgive the odd, squeezed-in title.

I'm leaving in a couple weeks and want to ready my LG work laptop for him or her. It's running Windows XP. Excluding doing a clean wipe with a fresh Windows XP install (I don't have the original CD because LG didn't put one in the original box. I know this because I was my school's first teacher and I opened this laptop fresh out of the box), what program(s) can I use to clean up my files (i.e. delete them completely).

I don't have much on this laptop. I have the odd cracked version of WinRAR, VLC, DivX, Real Player, iTunes, Quicktime, Flash, Firefox, Skype, Gimp graphics program and many others. Patched software is the worst I've got on here. The 'My Documents' folder is about 500 MB, 'Program Files' has about a billion applications I added out of necessity or for leisure, and I have a lot of browser bookmarks (i.e. not really a problem -- I can export then delete them from this laptop).

Ugh, I really need a clean Windows XP install disc. (Asking computer administrator now, actually)

[richardlang]

Oh, I forgot to mention. I've got torrents and lots of personal documents (e.g. resume, scans of documents, etc) on here.

Does anyone have any simple to use clean wipe program they'd like to suggest? What have been your experiences with cleaning (preferably with many secure data wipes) a hard drive of your files without doing a fresh install.

I know that if I did a clean install of Windows XP, it'd run a bit snappier for him or her, and it'd also be more ready to start afresh for personalization.

[blackjack]

go to control panel add install programs uninstall everything you put on

download ccleaner http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

run it

delete everything in my documents

delete all bookmarks

make sure you are logged out of all the sites you visit, banking, daves, facebook ...

open internet explorer hit safety delete browsing history

uninstall firefox

run ccleaner again

and to be extra safe turn off system restore, then turn it back on again

[denverdeath]

You might also want to check the disks that came with the laptop again. I received a brand-new LG laptop from my former workplace as well. Didn't realize until I was leaving(and in the same position you're currently in) that one of the disks actually had the Korean OS on it. Worth an extra check anyway...

[Kryten]

Also, a lot of new laptops aren't released with a system restore disk because they have the system restore files on a separate partition on the hard-drive. Check My Computer for anything other than a C drive.

[Pangit]

After you've deleted and uninstalled everything you want to get rid of, run Eraser, which can be downloaded from http://eraser.heidi.ie/ Test with Recuva, which can be downloaded from http://www.piriform.com/recuva

[HalfJapanese]

[bassexpander]

I second CC Cleaner, as mentioned above. Also, make sure to go ahead and check additional boxes to clean stuff out more. And yes, do uncheck system restore so it deletes your past saved entries. You can then turn it back on when you're all finished.

Also, to rewrite over the empty space on the hard disk, I suggest this awesome shareware program:

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

Make sure you select to erase free space only. A basic 1-pass pseudorandom ovewrite should do the trick. You're not dealing with a gov't trying to get into deleted files.

[ed]

why not erase only personal and sensitive things and leave all the rest for the new teacher?

if I were the new teacher I would be happy that everything was there and ready to go and I could delete what I don't want

[Horangi Munshin]

Yep and that would surely be easier too. Just delete your personal stuff and use that permanent deleter program (on free space!)