? about REALLY reformatting

cindy1948 · Post by **cindy1948** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 8:20 am

Morning.

HP could not fix my almost 1 yr old laptop (after 3 tries). They are now going to replace it, but they are replacing it with a refurbished laptop

I saw on TV that when you reformat it doesn't truely get rid of stuff. I do have to return my old laptop and am concerned all those puter wizes can still access my credit cards, bank numbers etc. How can I really get rid of it???

Thanks!!!

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 8:42 am

http://www.killdisk.com download their free version, burn the ISO, Boot to it, format..!

cindy1948 · Post by **cindy1948** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:26 am

Hey, thanks for the link. Now, it doesn't look like it is for the puter illiterates, burn ISO, etc...............I really don't know what that means. Have any sites where it is really easy?

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:40 am

What CD burning software you use?

cindy1948 · Post by **cindy1948** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:47 am

hmm, don't know, it came with the puter........

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:48 am

I just looked at the KillDisk site again, you can download a bootable floppy image to put on floppy disk if your laptop has a floppy drive.

Here's the direct link to the ISO that you burn on a CD.
http://download.lsoft.net/boot-cd-iso.zip

And here's the one for the floppy.
http://www.killdisk.com/downloads/killd ... ysetup.exe

Since your laptop isn't that old I wouldn't think it has a floppy drive so burning the ISO to a CD would be your only option.

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:51 am

Most CD burners either come with Nero or Easy CD creator... Did it come with either of those or somthing else?

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 12:58 pm

Download and run this application. It will make thye drive so that even the FBI cannot retrieve any data from it.

http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 1:10 pm

Tony, there's one problem with that program... It's not bootable, and he's formatting a laptop...

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:25 pm

The program does not have to be bootable, you just install it and run it. Before running it, just delete all sensitive files.

He could uninstall all programs except windows itself and go from there.

cindy1948 · Post by **cindy1948** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 8:31 am

ok, gonna try the one that seems easiest for my level of computer swavy (which is not much).

I'll let you know how I make out, but in the meantime, thanks alot!

cindy1948 · Post by **cindy1948** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 8:44 am

Tony and all,
The eraser, where you just download and run seemed most appropriate but it doesn't list windows XP.

http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/download.shtml

Will I still be able to use it, the laptop has XP home edition.?

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 8:55 am

http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/faq.shtml

Basic Information.
Q: "Which operating systems does Eraser support?"

A: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP (all versions, with or without service packs). Eraser has not been tested on other platforms.

cindy1948 · Post by **cindy1948** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:08 am

Jes Tony, My page says:

Eraser v5.3.
Download Eraser 5.3 for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 and 2000 from SourceForge (May 23, 2002; 751k). Free software. This is on the dowload page, not the Frequently Asked Questions.....

Hmmmmmmmmmmm what to do?

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:30 pm

go here and click on DOWNLOAD, not on Sourceforge link.

http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/download.shtml

It all the same program anyway, the author says what os it supports oon the faq page. Sourceforge is just a repository.