Hi all. Am selling my old computer and I want to delete all my favorites. I already saved them to CD-R. I just want to empty the file without having to do it one at a time. I have XP. How is this done? Thanks ahead of time. 
Deleting favorites folder > ?
- Thread starter MarNav1
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Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
In Windows explorer search for favorites, it should bring up a few depending on the user accounts on your machine, select each one at a time then select all the contents of each favorites folder and hit delete.
You may have an account or 2 deny access.
I would wipe the drive clean and do a fresh reinstall of the OS, that should get rid any and all remnants of personal info, the registry can hold quite a few personal things.
You may have an account or 2 deny access.
I would wipe the drive clean and do a fresh reinstall of the OS, that should get rid any and all remnants of personal info, the registry can hold quite a few personal things.
Dr Jekell
Enlightened
I am guessing you have a pre-built computer (i.e. from Acer, compac, Toshiba, Dell, etc)?
If you do they should either have supplied with the documentation or have a piece of software that will allow you to create a recovery CD.
You will need to go through the owners manual for the computer to find out how to create the CD if that is how they do it.
Once you have the CD, read the owners manual to find out how to reset the computer to "factory installation" or whatever they have decided to call it.
It will usually come will several warnings along the lines of "using this option will cause the loss of all user files & can not be undone"
This will wipe everything off the hard drive & reset it to how it came when you brought it brand new.
Hope this helps.
If you do they should either have supplied with the documentation or have a piece of software that will allow you to create a recovery CD.
You will need to go through the owners manual for the computer to find out how to create the CD if that is how they do it.
Once you have the CD, read the owners manual to find out how to reset the computer to "factory installation" or whatever they have decided to call it.
It will usually come will several warnings along the lines of "using this option will cause the loss of all user files & can not be undone"
This will wipe everything off the hard drive & reset it to how it came when you brought it brand new.
Hope this helps.
I found this and it works great on IE.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5612065_delete-favorites-computer.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5612065_delete-favorites-computer.html
I'll second the wiping of the drive, however a format (assuming that what you were suggesting) and a re-install will not be enough to prevent data recovery.
To wipe the computer and ensure nothing is recoverable use DBaN
no, after running dban you would have to do a reinstall from CD
LEDAdd1ct
Flashlight Enthusiast
If you are truly concerned with wiping all personal info, I agree that the best way to do that is by wiping the computer entirely. Unfortunately, this will wipe the OS. However, Microsoft licenses you to use a particular copy of the operating system, which means if you write down your key before erasing Windows, you can use that same key when reinstalling it.
DBaN is an excellent tool, which short of taking at your drive with a hammer, will destroy everything on it. Darik's Boot and Nuke as it is called, you can choose to write everything over with zeros or random characters.
It comes down to whether deleting your favorites is sufficient, or whether you want to really make sure everything personal is truly gone.
DBaN is an excellent tool, which short of taking at your drive with a hammer, will destroy everything on it. Darik's Boot and Nuke as it is called, you can choose to write everything over with zeros or random characters.
It comes down to whether deleting your favorites is sufficient, or whether you want to really make sure everything personal is truly gone.
blasterman
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,802
I run into the mirror of the problem when I donate IT time for non-profits. People are always donating computers, or they buy them cheap. 99% of the time with Windows still on it. Dangerous what you can find with a simple NTFS recovery tool and digging through cookies. For this reason I now refuse to work on used computers unless there's a serial key on the box and a valid installation disk for a clean windows install.
Pretty dangerous getting rid of an old computer without wiping it first.
Pretty dangerous getting rid of an old computer without wiping it first.
drmaxx
Enlightened
I suggest using ccleaner (free for private use):
http://www.piriform.com/
This nifty program deletes all the personal information from the computer (cache, ....)
Additionally, you might want to clean sweep the unused space on the harddrive to make sure that the deleted files can not be recovered. You can do this with several free utilities.
I am using an old version of eraser (V.5.8.5), that works like a charm:
http://eraser.heidi.ie/
I heard a lot of complaints about the new version - so you might want to look for something else.
This is something that takes some time - so you might want to do that over night or similar....
If you don't have any top secret sensitive information, this procedure should be good enough to protect your privacy from normal folks - it won't keep the CIA from extracting info from your old HD. But if you are concerned about that then you probably have other more important problems....
http://www.piriform.com/
This nifty program deletes all the personal information from the computer (cache, ....)
Additionally, you might want to clean sweep the unused space on the harddrive to make sure that the deleted files can not be recovered. You can do this with several free utilities.
I am using an old version of eraser (V.5.8.5), that works like a charm:
http://eraser.heidi.ie/
I heard a lot of complaints about the new version - so you might want to look for something else.
This is something that takes some time - so you might want to do that over night or similar....
If you don't have any top secret sensitive information, this procedure should be good enough to protect your privacy from normal folks - it won't keep the CIA from extracting info from your old HD. But if you are concerned about that then you probably have other more important problems....
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HarryN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Or, for around $30 - 40, you can just sell it with a new hard drive and not have to worry about your data getting to the new computer user.
M@elstrom
Flashlight Enthusiast
+1 for Nuking the HDD!
AFAIK unless you're also providing the full OS & paraphernalia/licence etc. with the system you can't sell it "as is" at least that's the case down here... BYO Operating System on used PC's (or a free linux install) :thumbsup:
AFAIK unless you're also providing the full OS & paraphernalia/licence etc. with the system you can't sell it "as is" at least that's the case down here... BYO Operating System on used PC's (or a free linux install) :thumbsup:
the only truth way to "destroy" old data in a harddisk is ..... smack it with a hammer till all parts inside is in pieces ......
when i was in the military, i was often told to do it whenever there;s a new change of harddisk/computer ..... kekke yea! :thumbsup:
like the rest said, get a new hdd for the old computer when u 'sell' it ...
fdisk nor format nor other softwares around is able to completely wipe data .... as long as the platter is still intact ....
when i was in the military, i was often told to do it whenever there;s a new change of harddisk/computer ..... kekke yea! :thumbsup:
like the rest said, get a new hdd for the old computer when u 'sell' it ...
fdisk nor format nor other softwares around is able to completely wipe data .... as long as the platter is still intact ....
watt4
Enlightened
you could make a new account on the machine with admin rights, then delete the old account.
blasterman
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,802
Odds are unlikely that somebody is going to remove the drive, take it apart, coat the platters with very expensive magnetic power, and read it with an electron microscope. While it is theorectically possible to to still read HD data that's been over-written several times it requires fairly elaborate forensic tools to do this. For the military is seems all you have to do is hire somebody from 'Wiki-leaks' and pretend they are listening to Lady Gaga to get stolen information.
I've worked for banks where the 'sledge-hammer' was the retirement practice, but unless you have secret information on your HD any of the data erasure tools mentioned above are sufficient.
For the military is seems all you have to do is hire somebody from 'Wiki-leaks' and pretend they are listening to Lady Gaga to get stolen information.
I've worked for banks where the 'sledge-hammer' was the retirement practice, but unless you have secret information on your HD any of the data erasure tools mentioned above are sufficient.
well .... my military days was in the early 90s .... when its all 386 and 486 ...... :devil:
