Clean up to Sell

I just got a new pc and I want to sell my old one.
It's a W98SE with MS Office, etc.

I want to clean off all my personal stuff but leave MSOffice and some other
stuff.

I've heard that simply deleting files is not safe since they can, sometimes,
be retrieved.
What do you recommend that I do to be sure it's really "clean?"

Thanks,
Doug

ps. This would include getting rid of my username, password, etc. for IE
and OE.

If you want to be sure that it is really clean, get a utility that
wipes the hard disk clean, then repartition, format, reinstall
and sell. "It's the only way to make sure." g

Saga

"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
I just got a new pc and I want to sell my old one.
It's a W98SE with MS Office, etc.

I want to clean off all my personal stuff but leave MSOffice and some
other stuff.

I've heard that simply deleting files is not safe since they can,
sometimes, be retrieved.
What do you recommend that I do to be sure it's really "clean?"

Thanks,
Doug

ps. This would include getting rid of my username, password, etc. for
IE and OE.

Thanks,
And where can I get such a utility??

Doug



"Saga" wrote in message
...

If you want to be sure that it is really clean, get a utility that
wipes the hard disk clean, then repartition, format, reinstall
and sell. "It's the only way to make sure." g

Saga

"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
I just got a new pc and I want to sell my old one.
It's a W98SE with MS Office, etc.

I want to clean off all my personal stuff but leave MSOffice and some
other stuff.

I've heard that simply deleting files is not safe since they can,
sometimes, be retrieved.
What do you recommend that I do to be sure it's really "clean?"

Thanks,
Doug

ps. This would include getting rid of my username, password, etc. for IE
and OE.

And where can I get such a utility??

I'm not sure - but I think that Maxblast from Maxor can.

I'd just click start, click run, type format C: then reinstall windows
from scratch. You'd need to reinstall MS Office, etc, but its pretty
safe

Thanks,
That sounds pretty simple.

Can you expand on "pretty safe?"

Thanks,
Doug



"mlscdi" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'd just click start, click run, type format C: then reinstall windows
from scratch. You'd need to reinstall MS Office, etc, but its pretty
safe

Format the hard drive and reinstall Windows (and Office if you plan to give
the buyer the CDs and license). Once you have installed everything that you
plan to install, defrag the hard drive. Then overwrite the "blank" area on
the drive using:

Eraser: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ Freeware that overwrites the "blank"
data on a
hard drive.

--
Regards


Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo



"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
I just got a new pc and I want to sell my old one.
It's a W98SE with MS Office, etc.

I want to clean off all my personal stuff but leave MSOffice and some
other stuff.

I've heard that simply deleting files is not safe since they can,
sometimes, be retrieved.
What do you recommend that I do to be sure it's really "clean?"

Thanks,
Doug

ps. This would include getting rid of my username, password, etc. for IE
and OE.

Thanks Ron. That's what I needed to know.






"Ron Badour" wrote in message
...
Format the hard drive and reinstall Windows (and Office if you plan to
give the buyer the CDs and license). Once you have installed everything
that you plan to install, defrag the hard drive. Then overwrite the
"blank" area on the drive using:

Eraser: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ Freeware that overwrites the "blank"
data on a
hard drive.

--
Regards


Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo



"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
I just got a new pc and I want to sell my old one.
It's a W98SE with MS Office, etc.

I want to clean off all my personal stuff but leave MSOffice and some
other stuff.

I've heard that simply deleting files is not safe since they can,
sometimes, be retrieved.
What do you recommend that I do to be sure it's really "clean?"

Thanks,
Doug

ps. This would include getting rid of my username, password, etc. for IE
and OE.

Go to Google.com and use this as a search phrase:

disk wipe utility


Good luck!!!
Saga

"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
Thanks,
And where can I get such a utility??

Doug



"Saga" wrote in message
...

If you want to be sure that it is really clean, get a utility that
wipes the hard disk clean, then repartition, format, reinstall
and sell. "It's the only way to make sure." g

Saga

"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
I just got a new pc and I want to sell my old one.
It's a W98SE with MS Office, etc.

I want to clean off all my personal stuff but leave MSOffice and
some other stuff.

I've heard that simply deleting files is not safe since they can,
sometimes, be retrieved.
What do you recommend that I do to be sure it's really "clean?"

Thanks,
Doug

ps. This would include getting rid of my username, password, etc.
for IE and OE.

Yeah good question g

If you use format to clean the disk, well, it is a safe bet that
you'll delete everything on it, but it does not destroy the
information, so if someone comes in with some recovery
utlity they -might- be able to recover some information.

Keep in mind that after the format, you will be reinstalling
Windows, Office, etc. so whatever new info gets written
to disk it will overwrite whatever was there before. That
makes it even more difficult to recover anything, but it
is still not 100%.

Also, if you have your hard drive partitioned, the format
command will only format the logcal drive, so you need to
format each partition, if this applies to you. I would still
go with the drive wipe utility and build from scratch.

Regards,
Saga


"Doug Mc" wrote in message
...
Thanks,
That sounds pretty simple.

Can you expand on "pretty safe?"

Thanks,
Doug



"mlscdi" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'd just click start, click run, type format C: then reinstall
windows
from scratch. You'd need to reinstall MS Office, etc, but its pretty
safe