Removing private data from a HDD before returning a PC for repair/replacement.

[Osem]

What would do about securing and/or removing personal data etc. from a hard drive in a computer which may need to be returned for repair or even replaced?
It's not backing up which is the issue but ensuring nobody else gets hold of anything sensitive like personal information, passwords etc. In fact I'm sure there are other potential privacy/security issues which a layman like me wouldn't know about so what's the best advice?

Cheers as always.

[Sasha222]

http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&...YLLO5w&cad=rja



http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&...JYNSnA&cad=rja


I got these for you Osem so hope they might be of some help for you

[Osem]

Cheers for that. Very useful!

I should clarify the scenario. In my case if an old PC were to fail I'd simply destroy the HDD and reload everything onto another drive. The situation I'm really referring to is when a PC is new and under warranty for example whereby sending it back to be repaired or replaced would be the only financially realistic option.

Of course if the fault was affecting/caused by the HDD it'd be hard to do anything about securing what's on it but what if the fault was something else or an intermittent issue? Presumably the best you can do is try to find and delete eveything private but how easy is it to do that in practice?

[Rob]

The challenge of course is how to get at your data on the hard disk of the computer needs repair as presumably it doesn't work.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Rob

The challenge of course is how to get at your data on the hard disk of the computer needs repair as presumably it doesn't work.

See my previous post re the types of fault I'm referring to.

[Sasha222]

Originally Posted by Osem

Cheers for that. Very useful!

I should clarify the scenario. In my case if an old PC were to fail I'd simply destroy the HDD and reload everything onto another drive. The situation I'm really referring to is when a PC is new and under warranty for example whereby sending it back to be repaired or replaced would be the only financially realistic option.

Of course if the fault was affecting/caused by the HDD it'd be hard to do anything about securing what's on it but what if the fault was something else or an intermittent issue? Presumably the best you can do is try to find and delete eveything private but how easy is it to do that in practice?

Your very welcome

[Kymmy]

If you've got a spare PC and large enough HDD then you can clone the drive to a partition. Then format and use the recovery disk to reset the drive if you don't want them looking at any of your data, also that may as well tell you if it is a software problem without it having to go back.

Either way I would clone/move data you want to keep if the drive is OK as most warranty repair places have clause that they may reset the drive to defaults (I.E.. use a recovery disk)

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

If you've got a spare PC and large enough HDD then you can clone the drive to a partition. Then format and use the recovery disk to reset the drive if you don't want them looking at any of your data, also that may as well tell you if it is a software problem without it having to go back.

Either way I would clone/move data you want to keep if the drive is OK as most warranty repair places have clause that they may reset the drive to defaults (I.E.. use a recovery disk)

Cheers Kymmy, I while ago bought a ClickFree C6 backup drive which automatically clones the entire HDD so I should have that aspect covered. If the PC fault had nothing to do with the HDD e.g. just a dodgy laptop monitor or something, my intention would be just to delete or secure any private stuff and leave the rest on the HDD. My own documents would be easy I guess but I don't have a clue what else would I would need to look for (e.g. hidden files etc.) and remove.

[AndyCambs]

I used CCleaner which has a wipe facility. It writes and overwrites blank data up to 35 times. (took all weekend mind you...)

[Osem]

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

I used CCleaner which has a wipe facility. It writes and overwrites blank data up to 35 times. (took all weekend mind you...)

Cheers, but what would I need to delete in addition to the usual personal files/documents?

[DaiNasty]

Darik's Boot and Nuke. Boots from a cd and will do a secure wipe on *ANY* hard disk it finds. So remember to unplug your backups.

http://www.dban.org/

It's one to run overnight as it takes a while but does a thorough job.

---------- Post added at 14:52 ---------- Previous post was at 14:51 ----------

Originally Posted by Osem

Cheers, but what would I need to delete in addition to the usual personal files/documents?

That's a hard one to answer with any certainty. Most well-behaved software will write data in the User tree but there are always exceptions.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Osem

Cheers Kymmy, I while ago bought a ClickFree C6 backup drive which automatically clones the entire HDD so I should have that aspect covered. If the PC fault had nothing to do with the HDD e.g. just a dodgy laptop monitor or something, my intention would be just to delete or secure any private stuff and leave the rest on the HDD. My own documents would be easy I guess but I don't have a clue what else would I would need to look for (e.g. hidden files etc.) and remove.

Do you have an original recovery or windows disk? If yes then just format/reinstall.. Just that if you're sending your PC off for repair and it's not a hardware fault they are likely to try to charge you at very least an admin fee..

[JMcB]

http://www.killdisk.com/

[Matt D]

Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), Active Killdisk, and CCleaner have already been mentioned. To those I'd also add Eraser. You can use it to securely delete files, empty the recycle bin, wipe HDD free space.

I quite like CCleaner though, for the additional things such as securely deleting temp files, net history and caches, etc.

Of course if you don't want to selectively kill stuff and wipe the free space the easiest thing as mentioned is to just securely wipe the whole drive.

[Osem]

Cheers everyone.