Hey guys if you sell your laptop make sure you overwrite the hardrive and more

[volsboy1]

I bought a Laptop off of Ebay it was only 18 months old and for a great price. I wanted a larger hard-drive and when I got in there I found everything about these folks I bought it from. Credit Card Numbers,Social security,Checking accounts , porn sites, and somebody is watching gay sex. I was floored and I called the lady and told her about what I found.(  No I did not mention the gay porn sense they were a young couple I didn't want to out her husband if its him) She was balling I felt so bad for her I promised her that I was not that type I would never dream of doing that. I told her that deleting files don't erase date it just allows it to be overwritten at another date. I gave her the info on how to do it securely yes its a pain and takes a while but its better than having your life upended.

 Don't do a quick format I format the drive and then have it overwritten 7 times with bullshit data.

Remember that SSD drives are different than mechanical drives and if your selling a laptop . I would take out the hard drive and smash it and replace it with a new one and sell it as no OS installed. I have been able to recover files that have been through the wringer and overwritten. That is the only fool proof way . I am just to nervous about throwing away a hard-rive...

 

[DADoES]

 
Applies to selling, or disposing/trashing, all computers, not only laptops.

 

[launderess]

Have a drawer full of hard drives removed from PCs before they were rubbished.

 

[qsd-dan]

I've used WipeDrive for over 20 years at home and work (trust no one!) to delete information on old hard drives.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Always keep your hard drives. Also, remove the battery and put it in a separate bag to be re-installed later, from the board to reset it and delete things.

If you're selling the computer, sell it "working with hard drive removed" or re-install a new hd, or even a used one that isn't yours. They are so cheap these days.

You can reinstall an operating system but don't have to connect to the internet to validate it. This way you can show that it does work and the customer can start fresh.

If you don't want the hard drive, take a hammer outside and smash it on the pavement. Wear safety glasses. Throw the piece out.

 

[DADoES]

 
Data Destruction Corporation:
How to Destroy An Old Hard Drive
Top 5 Hard Drive Destruction Methods That Work

Savvy Security Blog:
The Best Way to Destroy a Hard Drive

 

[turbokinetic]

Definitely; always use a trustworthy secure drive-wipe program on any storage media you sell. Or more ideally don't sell it with storage.

 

In the very early 2000's, a friend of a friend brought me a "pallet" of 8 or 9 desktop computers; marked with "scrap."  He wanted to have "one good working computer" out of the bunch and I could keep the rest for parts. 

 

The computers were similar Dell pentium desktops. Most of them were complete, dusty, and looked to have been switched off, put in a box, and sold. One or two had been scavenged for parts, such as a hard drive pr CD-ROM drive. Otherwise they were just current model, used computers. These were not cheap models, either. A bit of a red flag getting a pallet load of them like this.

 

During my testing, I found that 4 of them worked as-is and would boot to the login screen. Using a some software I was able to activate the Administrator account on these to log in. They were from an office of HealthSouth. For those not familiar; that company was embroiled in a multi-billion dollar accounting and investment scandal during this period. They have "doc-in-a-box" walk-in clinics and rehab services.

I looked through the hard drives and found lots of information belonging to patients, such as scans of sign-in forms with medical history, scans of drivers licenses and other ID documents, you name it.  One thing which wasn't on there were actual medical records, since that works via a database on a remote server. 

After scouring the drives for any useful stuff like proprietary Dell drivers for nonstandard hardware, software keys to re-install Windows etc. I proceeded to do a full format of each drive, do a fresh install of the then-new Windows XP, and install the drivers. 

 

I gave one good computer back to the guy, which he was pleased with.  The rest of them I sold and traded for.

 

I always wondered if the fact that these were sold off as junk, spite of being so new, was related to the scandal. Or if they were "lifted" from a closed office during the collapse of certain parts of that business. I told the owner what I found and he acted cagey, as to be expected. But, he got a good computer and I made a nice profit on the other 4 which I was able to get working. 

 

Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading this. Life can be interesting.