hard drive scrubbers

Information and help in the IT field of computers, internet, ISP's, mobile and fixed line telephones plus satellite TV systems.
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chrissiehope
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby chrissiehope » Mon May 27, 2019 12:02 pm

Sorry, I binned TV & have disabled internet :-( . I'm currently trying to establish if F1 is what I use to bring up the choice of boots !
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby gerryh » Mon May 27, 2019 12:17 pm

chrissiehope wrote: I must admit I'm very tempted by gerryh's suggestion !
Don't know how old your laptop is, probably quite old as it has XP on it.
Hard drives have a limited life so can be sensible to buy a new, larger capacity hard drive.
I'm guessing the current hard drive is a lot smaller than 500GB.
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Gerry
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chrissiehope
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby chrissiehope » Mon May 27, 2019 1:18 pm

The one I've got open is 8 or 9 years old with approx 35GB, which I've just realised is partitioned (I did know, but had forgotten !) - is this going to make a difference I wonder...
The other from memory is more recent, & probably larger
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby 1bassleft » Mon May 27, 2019 4:04 pm

As Enrique says, deleting individual files is wasting your time - I thought you were moving files you wanted to keep. Any of the programs we discussed (best to concentrate on dban as Enrique has been checking it out) will do that far more effectively for you. 35Gb is indeed small by today's standards but there is something to be said for leaving it in, wiped. I use a fraction of the ~180Gb on many of mine and the next user would probably similarly just want one for an operating system, surfing and some docs+pics.

The usb, once set up, contains enough to run the pc in a basic way (my first PC had 1Mb of memory for the operating system and word processor or whatever, 20Mb - that's 0.02Gb - hard drive for storing files) without all the bloat. The wiper will either just offer to clean the whole physical drive or allow you to choose both C: and D: partitions, but it makes no difference to your intention to scrub everything.

F1 is a typical example of the key to press after powering on, but if you're still struggling to find your specific one(s), you could post up your makes and models to get an answer here. You should find it easily; I just typed "Lenovo X220 bios key" into a search and straight off got the instructions "press F1 while logo is displayed to enter BIOS" which is correct for this machine.

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chrissiehope
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby chrissiehope » Mon May 27, 2019 5:16 pm

Hi 1bassleft, thanksfor this, but Enrique has talked me thro' it via Skype. Unfortunately, the 2 laptops won't recognise the USB as a source to boot from, & I'm having problems now getting it all on DVD, so am waiting for more help ! I got the netbook to accept the USB, but now that seems to have hit a problem as well :-( - I will get it done, one way or another ;-)
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chrissiehope
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby chrissiehope » Mon May 27, 2019 10:20 pm

Quick update - the guy I am giving them to has got back to me. He says he can wipe the hard drives using dban ! I just wish he'd got back to me earlier - it would have saved Enrique a lot of hassle, tho' he has the patience of a saint when dealing with technophobes like me !!
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby 1bassleft » Tue May 28, 2019 3:25 am

:lol: , I'll just put Alanis Morissette's Ironic on. Well, that saves you a heap of faff - and not really a "gosh, I'm glad I learned how to do that, it'll come in handy loads" type of task. As long as there's nothing that you really don't want to be viewed before handing off (pdf bank statements et al) or you're sure the guy really isn't nosey.

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Enrique
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby Enrique » Tue May 28, 2019 6:42 am

Hi,
Guess I'm stood down for today then................. :?:

"it would have saved Enrique a lot of hassle,".........no hassle for me as I do this stuff daily............

As an aside .........using Skype (there are other methods of phoning)........for a 42mins call from Spain to a UK landline the "credit" barely moved down.... :D

:angel:
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

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chrissiehope
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby chrissiehope » Tue May 28, 2019 1:26 pm

Final update !
He came round with the dban CD & a portable CD drive (for the netbook) and set everything going. All 3 have now finished, so job done :-) . He will collect the 'gutted' devices tomorrow

Thanks to all for help & suggestions :thumbup:
Alexandr for President (Squire for PM !)

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read (Groucho Marx)

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Enrique
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby Enrique » Tue May 28, 2019 1:37 pm

Hi chrissiehope,
Thanks for update...... "He came round "........a Techie to savour.............
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby 1bassleft » Tue May 28, 2019 9:58 pm

House Calls! Even the GPs stopped doing them years ago.

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chrissiehope
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Re: hard drive scrubbers

Postby chrissiehope » Tue May 28, 2019 10:48 pm

It's useful to know there is someone practically on my doorstep, but Enrique would always be the one I'd turn to first !

(I know the other guy from the local Frecycle group - he, his wife, & his cousin have had lots of items from me over the years)

PS Enrique, you'll be glad to know he is also a fan of Linux & has an all singing all dancing laptop (as well as others) :-)
Alexandr for President (Squire for PM !)

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read (Groucho Marx)


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