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How to wipe all disk data WITHOUT CD?

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12 replies

by jiongs

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I have a dell laptop on sell, how do I wipe the data.

12 replies

by sue t

does the laptop have a CD drive? Is there a recovery partition on the laptop so you could do a recovery to set the laptop back to the way it was when it was new (it might be a hidden partition)? Do you want to wipe the whole disk or just delete your documents, pictures, etc.? If you want to wipe the whole disk you could use the free edition of kill disk and run it a few times.

by greatnewproducts

@Sue T... READ the title: "... WITHOUT CD"...
Your suggestions are good though... most if not ALL new dells have a recovery partition that puts the Dell back to day zero.

by sue t

I would just like to reply to greatnewproducts with why I asked the questions I did because maybe there was a flaw with my thinking - Without CD might have meant he does not have a CD that came with the laptop, it does not necessarily mean no CD drive. If there is no cd drive then they might be able to use a bootable usb drive with the necessary utilities to do what they want. I realize most if not all laptops come with a recovery partition but I have also seen people who delete for one reason or another.

by Wizard57M-TR

Many laptops have a hidden partition that contains the installation files. You can access
this partition from the power on screen, usually pressing ESC or one of the "F#" keys,
like F1, F12 etc.

by rob kuhn

Or perhaps just pickup another HDD and just plop it into place.

Check the BIOS. Some of the Dell's had the ability to securely reformat the hard drive from inside the BIOS.

by oh smeg

File Shredder which is part of Spy Bot S&D. It's available free here though they do ask for a Donation which isn't mandatory.

http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors/

Not something I've ever used mainly because we have systems in place here to prevent the possibility of any Data escaping and we have to keep every HDD In House or destroy them so none go out with computers unless they are New and Unused here.

Col

by who am i really

since edit goes to page not found (I'll just add another post)

according to the EULA for windows:
- you can't sell / re-sell it with windows installed without also transferring to the buyer the windows installation media, and / or another method of reinstalling (eg. recovery partition etc.)

thus if there is no installation media or recovery partition it must be security erased and sold with No OS or the HDD removed and sold with no HDD / No OS

by b.kaatz

Well, if that's the case, either burn a CD/DVD with a linux iso and load linux, or, if you have no CD/DVD drive in the laptop, you can use Unetbootin to make the iso bootable from a USB stick and load linux from USB. ;)

Nice to see that there are others who also read the EULAs they are agreeing to... Thanks, Who.

by smartacew0lf

READ the title: "... couple of questions" in Sue T's response. I find it interesting that you read closely enough to understand the question posed by jjongs, such that you elected to critique another users reply, yet not closely enough to understand the need for Sue T's post.
Indeed this post begs the question, "What exactly is the desired end result?" in order to answer properly.

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