I am leaving work soon and want the best way to clean my computer after lifted all the files I need.

The time I spent on the org aside, I also have confidential intellectual property on this machine that I don't want them getting their grubby little paws on.

Anybody know how I can best wipe the internet and hard drive so the beast is a sterile gibbering (but still functioning) wreck when I leave.

Oh, I do not have administrator rights.

PREDOMINANT said:

it all depends, will they actually have your machine checked over properly for information and if you are using mapped drives.

anything you have saved on your desktop and any website you have visited, they will have on record already it will be on the server which holds your profile and in the back ups

and anything you have saved in your documents folder will also be backed up and on the server which stores all the home folders.

anything you save on your actual hard drive, you can press shift and delete which will get rid of it. but if they check the machine over properly they can still retrieve deleted files.

u can of course remove and replace the hard drive and tell them that the machine is broke..

ohh and if none of that makes sense, its probably because i dont know what i am talking about...

eraclito said:

Bastards!!

It is the deleted files I wanted to delete completely. If I safe an empty file (ie delete the contents) before I delete the file wouldn't the recovered file with that filename be empty?

It is amazing that they have this kind of access but when I lost my grant application there was fuck all they could do!!

I thought using the desktop was the safest place, my documents and any shared dives I never used.

Internet, whatever - they will just find a lot of time was spent on a certain prince.org website, whatever that is.

Chees though, many thanks for your :geek:xpertese

eraclito said:

There is that.

PREDOMINANT said:

Just take the whole damn thing home. I bet they won't even notice.

PREDOMINANT said:

DON'T WIPE THE INTERNET PLEASE !!!!!

PREDOMINANT said:

Basically you are fucked.

now on a serious note ... http://www.pcworld.com/ar...ticle.html

However, check all policies u ever signed/accepted regarding the use of computer equipment, because doing this might be a violation of policy.

For the future, start off using truecrypt (www.truecrypt.org). It can create
an encrypted volume of the size of your choosing, protected with a password and/or keyfiles. That volume will reside on the harddisk and is unreadable to anyone without the password or password/keyfile combination. It makes ur data portable.

On another note ... wtf are you doing personal stuff on your work PC ?

@MissMe :

we WILL notice and we WILL hunt you down

it's all 'bout the 1's and the 0's ... and you are clearly the 0 ...

One4All4Ever said:

Who are WE???

MissMe said:

we in a general sense, we = whoever ownes the computer you are taking home. I agree in a lot of cases few ppl will notice ...

One4All4Ever said:

phew, I thought you were one of these guys for a minute

One4All4Ever said:

I am not worried about the personal stuff, the odd photo and personal e-mails. Its the work related items that are mine through intelectual property law. They are the property of the university while I am here, but not when I leave. I have to be really careful when it comes to patents and publishing with regard to who might have access to my data.

Shall I just microwave the hard drive

One4All4Ever said:

They will notice. They are unlikely however to start taking time to unravel any sorded files they think they might find as long as the PC seems in order.

CAn you format a hard drive?

PREDOMINANT said:

then u can't .. only Administrator access (unless u're a hacker.. just jokes ) .. can clean your puter..

PREDOMINANT said:

yes you can ... what you actually need is some Live CD Linux version like Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/)or Ubuntu or Mandriva, let the machine boot from there and then use gpart or fdisk (I'm not sure fdisk is on linux but I thought it was) and remove all partitions, then create 1 big new partition.
You might also use some tools to overwrite the disk several times with random 1's and 0's.

If you actually got copyright on those files (which you have as you are putting it) you can ask them to wipe the drive in your presence or even have the drive destroyed for you. You can not be assured that they do not have copies of your files however.... you'll need some funky tools or a subpoena to recover those ...

Flowerz said:

do not underestimate the power of the digital jedi !

Flowerz said:

One4All4Ever said:

Do you know I never thought of just asking them to do it for me they are bastards, but not criminals.

I like the idea of "funky tools" though.

One4All4Ever said:

for Predominant

see? I told you only a hacker can do this job *runs away* .. just jokes, but really.. yes linux will do the job

Flowerz said:

I like the idea of doing this too What state will it leave the computer in?

PREDOMINANT said:

it will be just a spic-and-span harddrive, ready to be loaded with a new OS.

BlackAdder7 said:

really.

XxAxX said:

I belief that's an offer I will not refuse

Windex. It'll make your computer so clean it'll shine!

BlackAdder7 said:

that's okay. a shower should do it

Want me to pop in to work with you.....i can make it all clean and shiny and fuck the lot of 'em

I will need paying in beer.

cleaning it with diet pepsi would help, no one could get at it then!!!
[Edited 7/26/07 10:45am]