How do I "erase" my computer

[Tripper]

Costco changed their policy, might not return computers after 90 days I think
Do you know how to burn a cd, if I gave you an ISO file


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[Tripper]

How do I "erase" my computer

Take hard drive out and use ball peen hammer, standard government procedure. they had us smashing hard drives one day while waiting to class up for my MOS. It is very effective way of keeping people from getting any info off of them.

But can still be retrieved, that used to be thought of as a good method, and is an ok method. On the other hand, hardly any method is insufficient for a determined person with lots of time and money, this usually limits the retrieval to governments. A citizen has no reason to spend what it would take to recover
Think the space shuttle, they were able to retrieve 99% if the Data as I recall, i don't remember if they were broken in pieces though, that was 10 years ago, many advances since then
The point being, if the right ppl want your data they will get it if they have the money
All your doing us Making the effort not worth the reward



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[DOGSPEED]

Costco changed their policy, might not return computers after 90 days I think
Do you know how to burn a cd, if I gave you an ISO file


Sent from iPhone

I did know how to burn a cd at one point, not sure now.
May have to meet you at hunters supply

[DOGSPEED]

Started a new thread to see if anyone knows wth im talking about, and can point me in the right direction to fix it.

[ldsnet]

Not sure what you are wanting to accomplish here. Are you looking to erase EVERYTHING on the drive and get rid of the machine or just to start with a factory install of the Operating System?

What you want as the end result will dictate your course of action.
sounds like a newer HP with Windows 8.1 and lots of HP "bloatware" came pre-installed.

[nerdyvirgin]

I use a freeware program called bcwipe, option to wipe free space on drive, so I restore back to factory and then wipe the drive with dod 7 pass, or i will take out hard drive connect it as a slave drive to another computer and wipe everything but c drive, but I never saved anything to operating drive only to other partitions that are easier to delete.

[dc2allday]

Put it in the microwave

[DOGSPEED]

Not sure what you are wanting to accomplish here. Are you looking to erase EVERYTHING on the drive and get rid of the machine or just to start with a factory install of the Operating System?

What you want as the end result will dictate your course of action.
sounds like a newer HP with Windows 8.1 and lots of HP "bloatware" came pre-installed.

I did want to return it, tonight i am not as angry and would like to try and fix it. It is an hp with 8.1

[ldsnet]

Is there a saved restore point from the base install? You may want to explore that route first.

[Tripper]

Oh, your local
I can meet somewhere and grab it for a bit if you want


Sent from iPhone

[wpod]

Your local IRS office can lise all the info from any computer, at least all Emails

[SanDiegoMan]

Flamethrower. or factory disc lets you restore to original config.

[Gawernator]

Simple wipe will stop 99% of people. Are you trying to keep out the NSA? Lol then make 20+passes of formatting the HDD which should take hours to a day or two

[ElDub1950]

I want to know what company is going to let him return a computer after "a few months".

That and who would accept it with a zeroes out drive. Before you wipe it out you'd better ask the store if you can return it. Otherwise it sounds like you might not know how to restore it since you'll probably have to keep it.

There are free file 'shredder' programs to use. You need to know what you're looking for and where you need to look.

[BoredofTrade]

Darik's Boot And Nuke or DBAN. Multiple pseudorandom number generators and you get to specify the amount of passes you want. It's free, too.

http://www.dban.org