Cleaning out a laptop

Heeter

Overclocked Like A Mother
Joined
8 Jul 2002
Messages
2,732
Hi guys,

I am going to be quiting my job. I do have a laptop that I am going to be returning. It is a Dell. I don't have the restore disks. It is XpPro.

My question: Other than uninstalling programs that I installed, and removing personal files, what else can be done to make it as clean as possible. Again, I do not have access to the restore disks, therefore, a reformat is not possible. EG: Could I delete stuff from the "Event Log" and such??

I do know that I am going to leaving some traceability behind, but the less is the better.

Thanks in advance,

Heeter
 
zero out the drive. using a drive utility for the type of hardrive. You can open it up to look at it. what model of dell is it and i can probaly tell you.
 
It is a Dell Latitude D600

Specs:

Intel Centrino, 1.60GHz, 512M, XpPro.

Attached is the serial number of the drive.


Heeter
 

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do you have a problems with zeroing the drive? If its a big compay most IT guys re core a laptop anyways but sometimes in smalle rones they dont
 
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I do not have access to the restore disks, but, alas, I do not know what "Zeroing" the drive means.

Heeter
 
If you zero the drive then you would need something to reinstall an OS with. If you have no restore disk then I don't know that writing zeros (reformating) would be the best idea. If you had a restore disk then it would be, though.
 
Zeroing the drive means to completely wipe the drive out .. Other wards, get killdick, put it on a floppy, insert said floppy, reboot pc, let it do it's thing. What it will do is rewrite the drive with nothing but ones and zeros. Thus making it impossible to recover things from it. The government wouldn't even be able to get what you had on there. Most businesses zero out the drive before they give ti to another associate. Others are stupid and don't do anything but throw it away.

To save your ass, zeroing it would be the best option. Kill disk is the drive eraser that is used the most .. The government even uses it. So that has to tell you something about it ..
 
muzikool said:
If you zero the drive then you would need something to reinstall an OS with. If you have no restore disk then I don't know that writing zeros (reformating) would be the best idea. If you had a restore disk then it would be, though.

If he don't the disk, what makes one think that the company don't ??
 
he is giving it to them. its not liek he is gona use it you dont need the disks. If anything just ask to watch your IT department zero it. But trust me ask to watch it be done lol .
 
i would say totaly formatt it a few times and leave it blank :D
 
I think we all might be missing his point, I think he means, he needs to turn it back in, and in my company, how you recieved it is how they want it back (even if they do slick it and start over)

SO... I would suggest you contact your IT department. If they say they want the laptop intact with the current OS on it, leave it be, and then clear history, page file, temp folder, empty the recycle bin, and get rid of any Index.dat files.... Use the Link in Johnnys Sig thats a decent one, and its FREE!
 
mlakrid said:
I think we all might be missing his point, I think he means, he needs to turn it back in, and in my company, how you recieved it is how they want it back (even if they do slick it and start over)

SO... I would suggest you contact your IT department. If they say they want the laptop intact with the current OS on it, leave it be, and then clear history, page file, temp folder, empty the recycle bin, and get rid of any Index.dat files.... Use the Link in Johnnys Sig thats a decent one, and its FREE!

Thanks mlakrid,

That is exactly what I meant, how it needs to be returned. Thanks all.

Heeter
 
IF you are a local admin on the laptop, create yourself a new user account. Call it whatever you'd like, say "cleanme" or something. Make the new account a local admin before logging in with it. Then, login with the "cleanme" account, and delete your other account entirely.

This will obviously get rid of all files, and in regards to the event logs, make entries created by your account unreadable. Where they are to get error codes or alerts, they will only see zeros or other truncated characters.

I suggest NOT talking to your IT department. Not to say anything about you, but I Have seen places that will be sneaky to "record" things before they do anything. I know a place that puts keyloggers on computers during the final week employees are there. Don't put up any red flags, just TCB (take care of business)

Good luck in your next job btw.
 
VenomXt said:
zero out the drive. using a drive utility for the type of hardrive. You can open it up to look at it. what model of dell is it and i can probaly tell you.

Zeroing out a drive is low-level format. Which really cant be done with an IDE. Manufactures have low-level format utilities for IDE but they will still have to leave some info behind. :) But your suggestion works for his situation, im jsut being an ass :)
 
Heeter said:
Hi guys,

I am going to be quiting my job. I do have a laptop that I am going to be returning. It is a Dell. I don't have the restore disks. It is XpPro.
Heeter

depending on how sensitive the personal information on your drive is, I'd try either buying it from your company or reformatting with any xp disc you can get a hold of then taking the heat from the company for returning the lap in differant condition then you received it

I would then after reformat, overwrite the free area with a security tool which are free
 
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I am the admin on this laptop. I have full control over it. It is not part of any domain or workgroup. It is a standalone machine. I am expected to return it in good working condition. I don't expect them to reformat and put it back into service, I expect them to just hand it over to the next person the way I return it. I just don't want the next person to see what I had in there, or the proggies I installed.

Thanks, Guys,

Heeter
 
Heeter said:
I am the admin on this laptop. I am expected to return it without any personal info on it. I don't expect them to reformat and put it back into service, I expect them to just hand it over to the next person the way I return it. I just don't want the next person to see what I had in there, or the proggies I installed.

Thanks, Guys,

Heeter

As far as the proggies, un-install them. Then, do what I suggested above by deleting your user profile. Should do the trick.
 
I will do exactly as you described, kcnychief.

Thanks a whole bunch, Lancer

Heeter
 
Heeter said:
I will do exactly as you described, kcnychief.

Thanks a whole bunch, Lancer

Heeter

No problem, good luck. Where you off to next if you don't mind me asking? What type of job are you leaving (again, if you don't mind me asking)?
 

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