View Full Version : Donating a PC
Greyhorne
May 10th, 2007, 03:36 AM
A friend of mine wishes to donate his old, but dependable PC, and wants to erase his hard drive, well enough to rest with reasonable assurance, that any personal data now stored on it, will not be retrievable by its next potential user.
The only trick is that the backup for the OS (Win98), and all the associated software, is stored on the hard drive as well.
He has no hard copy from which to reinstall the OS. If he erases the entire drive clean, I doubt the machine would be of any value to anyone without an OS on it.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Murf
May 10th, 2007, 05:33 AM
Do they have a CD Burner to install the backup to? What form is the 98 backup? Image, Windows Backup?
Greyhorne
May 11th, 2007, 05:43 AM
It might, otherwise it has a DVD ROM.
I have a extra internal CD Burner, I could probably hook up as a temporary slave to burn somthing. I'd also probably need to install burning software...
Is that why you asked what format the back up is stored as?
Because it would dictate what kind of burning software is needed, for instance to read and burn an ISO image?
I'll have to check the machine to find out, as I'm not sure.
renegade600
May 11th, 2007, 04:54 PM
legally if you do not have the operating system cd/or restore that came with it, then you need to wipe the drive and leave it wipe.
Greyhorne
May 12th, 2007, 11:57 PM
renegade600 wrote:
legally if you do not have the operating system cd/or restore that came with it, then you need to wipe the drive and leave it wipe.
Thats a simple enough remedy.
renegade600
May 13th, 2007, 01:16 AM
it might be a good enough system to expand your knowledge and check out linux.
Greyhorne
May 15th, 2007, 05:53 AM
Hmmm, not a bad idea. My friend may raise a brow, having trusted ME to erase everything.:naughty:
Its a Pentium3 550, 15GB HD, the basics. I believe its got 256Mgs of RAM, which I could probably bump up now at a nominal cost.
Kinda falls short of server material, isn't that usually synonymous with Linux?
Greyhorne
May 15th, 2007, 06:35 AM
Actually, thats just this side of the rubbage heap. :laugh:
I've had my current system for almost 4 years now, and been entertaining the idea of a new build.
If so, this one would probably make a better Linux machine.
Vista's release created some reluctance about investing in alot new hardware just yet, aside from Intel's Core Duos which appear to be relatively sound acquisitions in any case.
Then again, theres not really a need to upgrade yet. This current system runs XP solid as stone. So, I suppose if you were referring to more of a science project...