i mean ive deleted my history with my bank details etc

do i have to do anything else thats fiddly?

jonylawson said:

As far as I know, a real computer geek can restore ANYTHING you had on your harddrive, even stuff you have deleted.

do a search for pictures from the start menu....then go into your temp files and delete anything you have there....then do a system restore to factory settings after you pull all your documents and anything else you want to save off of your hard drive....even then, a really good hacker could find stuff, so you may even want to look into getting an aftermarket hard drive to replace the one in the computer now...

oh yeah...make sure you get all your weirdo porn off of there too....nothing like having the person you sell the computer to giving you the look....
[Edited 10/20/07 5:59am]

Take your hard drive out & beat it with a hammer. Make them buy a new one

Format and rebuild

.

mdiver said:

+1

1. Write random data to the disk at least 300 times

2. Remove drive and place near to strong magnetic field

3. Drill through the drive with a 20mm bit

4. Using a good accelerant, set fire to the drive (outside preferably)

5. Smash the remains to pieces

6. Have what's left powdered and send 50% to the North Pole to be buried and 50% to the South Pole to be buried.

Failing that, yeah, a format and rebuild should be OK.

wickyb said:

this post will self destruct in five...four...three...two....one...

format and reboot????? what the hell does that mean!!!!!

jonylawson said:

format and REBUILD

Hopefully your PC came with a Windows disc. What you need to do is reinstall Windows.

To do this, put the CD in your drive and reboot. If it doesn't load before Windows kicks in, you'll need to change the order of boot devices in your BIOS.

How to change boot order - When you normally switch your system on, you should see a message like 'press del to enter setup' Once you get into the setup you should set the CD-ROM to be the first boot device. Save and exit.

Once you can load the disc, just follow the instructions to reinstall windows. I think from memory (i'm a guy now!) you need to delete the main partition, create a new partition, format and then install windows.

wickyb said:

I was actually reading this seriously until #6!!!

There are utilities out there (both free and commercial) that will overwrite your entire hard drive several times with junk data. It's usually a good idea to do this first, then reinstall Windows.

Call someone to clean your harddrive out, better yet keep your harddrive and let the person that's buying the computer get a new one. I heard someone from the FBI say that!
[Edited 10/21/07 7:17am]