Wiping HD but leaving O/S

BokehBokeh Member Posts: 1,636 ■■■■■■■□□□
Have a friend who needs his old laptop wiped clean. I was going to use DBAN, but his cd/dvd drive does not work.

Is there a program out there that will clean off the machine yet leave the O/S in tact? He is giving this away to someone who has an external usb cdrom drive that lives out of state.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Comments

  • vColevCole Member Posts: 1,573 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Not that a know off, a clean format to wipe all data would be a format. Which of course would not leave an OS.
  • HeroPsychoHeroPsycho Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,940
    The person receiving the laptop and the person giving it away would both benefit from fully erasing the hard drive, including the OS. It would securely get rid of all personal data, and the person receiving it would have a freshly installed OS that would have 0% chance of already being compromised.

    With that said, SDelete would do the trick...

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx

    You however would need to tell it which files to delete. You can easily drag/drop them to SDelete using the following tip:

    http://lifehacker.com/software/hard-drives/the-windows-file-shredder-211357.php
    Good luck to all!
  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    No. Not without going through every single directory on the HD. Would be easier and quicker to just format and find a USB CD drive.
  • KGhaleonKGhaleon Member Posts: 1,346 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Just getting the CD key by using Jellybeans keyfinder:
    magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

    then reinstall the operating system and drivers(from a CD or website). That's the normal routine for transferring a computer to someone else. I believe you can clean the slackspace on the hard drive using certain tools.
    Present goals: MCAS, MCSA, 70-680
  • draineydrainey Member Posts: 261
    You should be able to get DBAN to run from a floppy. Of course that means you need a floppy drive.
    The irony truly is strange that you're the only one you can change. -- Anthony Gomes
  • skrpuneskrpune Member Posts: 1,409
    KGhaleon wrote: »
    Just getting the CD key by using Jellybeans keyfinder:
    magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

    then reinstall the operating system and drivers(from a CD or website). That's the normal routine for transferring a computer to someone else. I believe you can clean the slackspace on the hard drive using certain tools.
    +1

    If you wipe the drive & reinstall the OS, that's probably the easiest way to go about leaving the OS & getting rid of the files. It's not a bad idea to do a reinstall anyway, it will remove the bloat that has probably amassed over time and will probably make the user happier overall.
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