Re-format, clean out the registary(sp?), de-frag, of course, burn everything you want to keep onto a CD first
You can start by opening your "My Documents" folder, and putting what you want to keep on a CD or several floppies. Then delete all of it. (Empty the recycle bin when you're done!) Next, do the same with your IE Favorites folder. Reformatting is often a pain in the ass! Plus it can cause wear on the hard disk. Did you keep the CD(s) that came with it?
KK. Then what hardware is available to you? CAN you burn a CD on it? Or a DVD? Do you have access to the BIOS setup? We have some knowledgable people here on the forums. I'm sure someone can help ya with what you are trying to get done.
the truth is if someone really wanted to get at it, recovery of data isn;t a hard thing to do, even after several passes OR a format. but assuming you don;t have national secrets on there 1.Burn off Data 2.Reinstall operating system -When doing this you should be able to pick a format and install option. you WANT to format and re-install. 3. make a dummy account, make sure everything is in order, run windows update about 30 times and you're ready to sell it.
One would believe that someone would know what they have on their machine that they want to keep. If I was about to wipe a computer clean, I'd sit down, stare at it for a few seconds, and then go get another cup of coffee. When the coffee is made, I'd ask myself what I wanted to keep. It is unusal, but maybe I'd have some .doc files (microsoft word documents) that I wanted to keep. I have fond memories of DOS and they're clear as a bell so I would open up the C:\ prompt and plug away. Maybe you'd have to open them up in word and go 'Save As.' I also look for files that end with .txt .bmp .jpg .gif .htm .cgi .......... and the like.
