Need help removing info.. trying again !

I need help! With "Many" "Many" of you it should be really simple help to guide me through. Will I receive true help with no arguements? I would need patience and basic instructions!

Heart [ ]

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

What are you wanting to remove?

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Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||512 DDR2 ||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

Qwester do you need more specific details than simply Toshiba because I have more info..I don't think you would need it. Let me know...........Thank You both so far...only because I haven't done anything yet! Since I have only once hooked up a wireless connection being talked through it...I have no experience! I've only been wireless since 12/4/04 !

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

I'm trying to figure out exactly what you are wanting to remove. Are you wanting to remove your wireless settings, like encryption password, etc.?

Or things that I.E. saves like your cookies, autofill passwords, ?

~A~

 

Ok! I'm having one of my defective notebooks is being picked up Wednesday or Thursday by UPS.

I'm not sure how to go about this and explain. I need to make sure my personal wireless information (1st priority) is completely removed from the notebook. Supposedly Dell or any company before they stick it in refurbished reformats ,tests,etc..Although Dell insists that if you return a notebook backup your info( does not apply to me) and remove anything private!

I've been a victim of an internet scam from someone I know/knew (past tense now) which is part of a major criminal investigation in my area...this was the person who was going to do this removal for me last week before a week ago sunday when I became part of his ring of victims (whatever it would be called)!

I'll start there because this was used defective for a couple of weeks!

A reinstall is not an option for me or up for discussion because It'll cause problems..OK?

Ask me more questions so I can explain easier what I need exactly!

Thank You and I'm trying again after someone that not typically would apologize to me for anything and he did! This gave me hope for help I need. To that person....(Thank you again if you see this)!!!

Heart [ ]

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

Best way to be sure you have totally cleaned up all your data is to do a low level format for the hard drive. That sets every sector back to '0', just like it was when it was manufactured. You can get a software that does that from the manufacturer of your drive, if they have something like that published on their site, or you can find some tool online to do that.
What brand is your HDD?

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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Exactly why I said ask me questions because I know that something would be hit on that makes sense or give me a start. Now I know how to delete a profile of course but never deleted the only profile on a computer. I could most likely figure that out quick enough but tell me how please and what about keys/passwords and anything else all related to the Router/Modem/wireless?

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

lol, ok we have a starting point.
First, I would start out with

http://www.privacyeraser.com/free-internet-eraser.htm

It will erase all your internet history, and everything for free. If you can afford the pro-version I would go with it. I'm always constantly using it. Be sure to run this after the last you access the internet. Couple of things, go to the windows tab, make sure everything is checked. Also go to the browsers tab and make sure everything is checked. Then you can return the main tab and click on quick clean

After that, I would go to start menu-->accessories-->system-->clean disk (make sure to have everything checked). After that I would turn off you wireless connection to make sure nothing will try to access the net.

That will clean out your I.E. files two times, so nothing should be left. If you have your wireless turned off, then you can verify that pretty easy. Open I.E. up-->tools-->internet options-->in the temporary internet files click on settings-->click on view files and view objects (both should be empty).

That should get you started on the internet stuff. What are you using for wireless connection?

Edit: sorry, i'm being slow tonight. I would use the free software at least..saves hassle.

 

heart I am not clear about what exactly you're talking about when it comes to wireless? is it the wep key, the mac address, or ...?

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by heartofgold

 

well i was writing that before i realized you had posted more things. The only reason i suggested the full version is because it cleans out the autofill, but I don't think the free does. But it is a good utility. I think it was recommended on here by one of the admins/mods.

I didn't see that you were mainly asking about the network connection.
You can go to your network connections, right click on the wireless and choose disable. But if this is your only outlet for the net at the moment, i would wait until you the night before you send back. I was assuming that you were using another PC. Sorry for the confusion.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||512 DDR2 ||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro

 

If your connection is turned off, you can still open up internet explorer . It might ask you if you want to work offline or try to connect, choose work offline. The page will just display "can't load this page". This way you can go to the internet options and make sure you files are cleaned out. If you don't want to go thru the hassel of opening up Internet explorer, assuming you only have 1 profile on pc

C ocuments and SettingsOwnerLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C ocuments and SettingsOwnerLocal SettingsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5.

Both of those should be totally clean, except for the index.dat file in the second link.

Yes, it is the second and third tab on that utility. Make sure everything is check on both, and that should get rid of everything in Internet explorer.

I was trying to figure out if you are using Intel Wireless Pro. Do you have something on your taskbar that turnes yellow/green or some color to let you know how good your internet connection is? If you do, you can double click on it, select the profile and then click remove. That will remove your connection.

I agree with Qwester. The only way to be totally safe is to take the harddrive out and drill holes in it (according to my business law professor). Since that isn't an option, we'll just have to make the best with what we can do.

~A~

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||512 DDR2 ||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro

 

toshiba no longer keep such software. this software does the exact same thing, but I am not sure if you will need a floppy drive to use it [ ]
http://www.download.com/Active-Kill-Disk-Hard-Drive-Eraser/3000-2092_4-10188745.html?tag=lst-0-2

the reason why i would recommend something that wipes your drive clean is because when windows deletes something it actually isn't deleted. Windows just deletes its record from the File Allocation Table (FAT). but the actuall data remains there. Some one with a little bit of know how can do a dump of that "raw" data and analyze it to figure what's in it (I know it is far fetched, but better safe than sorry). So what a wipe does is format that drive and right zeros (or some meaningless pattern of 1s & 0s) to all sectors of the drive. That way you are sure nothing of yours is left behind!

As for the wireless. you can go to the properties of your wireless connection (depend if windows manages your wireless connection or some software that came with your card), where it lists all the wireless networks you connect to, and just delete all the network list, this will delete all the associated WEP keys.

[EDIT]: to delete the one and only user in xp, log in as administrator (an admin account was created when you first installed XP) and delete your regular account.

[EDIT 2]: I am gonna have to hit the sac. I have been up for almost 40 hrs now [|)]. I'll check back here tomorrow morning before I go to university.
Hope all works well for you Heart!

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

Southergirl

You asked what I'm using for wireless connection...What are you asking specifically?

Please don't leave me yet...you and Qwester are the only ones out of 50 people that viewed so far that are willing to help me!

Appreciated sincerely of course.......[ ]

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

WTF is all this mumbo jumbo about?

They already told you exactly what to do - delete your connection, it'll delete your wireless password. Besides I still don't get why you cannot just change it to something useless...

PS: open your network connections (under Control Panel) and delete your wireless one after you disabled it - it's simply as 1-2-3.
Log in as administrator and delete the user profiles under Control Panel - Users and that's it.
If you want, you can go to c:documents and settings and delete everybody else's folder except Administrator, All users and Default user - then you can sleep.
Of course, these actions won't actually nullify your hard drive space (the area these data sit), so if you're still scared from possible recovery (are you some drogdealer or spy?), go to http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/securedelete.shtml and first download and instal some of these tools and THEN delete those user folders by running your chosen secure delete tool.

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by T2k!

Dell Inspiron 6000D: P-M 730 (Sonoma)|15.4" WSXGA+|1x1GB DDR2-533|Mobility Radeon X300 128MB|60GB|24x DVD/CD-RW|Intel PRO 2200 (802.11b/g)|Dell 350 Bluetooth|

 

T2k

It would have helped to have a Dell user and I wondered why someone couldn't tell me what you said and direct me how to put in something else or remove it!
At least I had two decent people go out of their way for me by their own choice ...not by me constantly pushing!

If you read the beginning post or two you would se I'm not paranoid or worried for no reason! It was a fluke (I wouldn't typically be extra worried...I was actually pretty secure except for someone having access to all my computers because that's the persons expertise) because I knew the person for years and he went in a bad direction for reasons!

I will assume the WTF is not including the F* word!

A simple explanation and your link (which I have saved in my favortes) would have been decent, apreciated and well received.......

Heart

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

I have my 9300, and I can walk thru as much as I can. I'll be on tomorrow. Really,the only way to totally secure your harddrive 100% is to take it out and drill holes in it, but of course that's not an option. Even formatting won't get rid of everything.

I think the best thing would be to use the program that qwester gave you. We can try that tomorrow if you want.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||512 DDR2 ||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro



EDIT: Ok, totally ignore me. I'm repeating myself like crazy. Sorry guys, didn't mean for the double info.

 

There are different levels of removal, unfortunately if you have a Toshiba drive, one of the most potent form -- a low-level format, is not possible, as unlike every other HD manufactuers, Toshiba does not release that utility to the general public.

Aside from that you have serveral options. The simpliest is following Southerngirl's advice of first using a program to wipe clean your history files, caches, and cookies, then go under Document and Settings and delete all user-related info. Lastly, delete you network connections in control panel.

This is sufficient for most instances I would imagine. It would be relatively easy to pull data off, but a lot of people will not bother with the effort, if they don't see something obvious.

Next level would be a simple reformat of your HD. Think of it as a one-step deletion routine. Are the data still there? yep, but they will be slightly harder to recover...

If you want to be even more secure -- before you reformat, repartition the drive a few times! That really scrambles a lot of stuff up.

Here's the ultimate thou: If you truly wish your data to be gone, besides a low-level format, what you can do is using a powerful disk wipe program like this one:

http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php

This program will literally go from the beginning of your HD platter, and write 0s and 1s throughout the ENTIRE data sectors of the HD. It's a VERY slow process, but literally your entire HD will be "wiped" clean.

It goes without saying, that you need to backup your HD prior to doing this.

cheers,

yass

 

I have no information to back up on the computer and the extra information the Qwester and southergirl gave me will suffice because what I have been mainly concerned about was clearing out the wireless keys/passwords. I'm not paranoid but if read someone would understand why I'm a bit concerned more than usual. Not hysterical but wanting/needing to protect myself more than simply returning the PC without doing anything! What was done to me was only a week ago!

Anyway with as much as I can do without someone with a 9300 willing to go over every single step in the wireless properties for me..Dell should wipe clean all PC's before putting them under refurbished!

Karma, It'll Get You!


P.S Southerngirl....Sorry I did not see your post about tomorrow and the notebook. I think I told you that I keep falling asleep while typing. I don't even get a warning .It just happens due to my health! I'm done for the next 5 hours or so on this board . Hopefuly i'll have it figured out or catch up with you tomorrow.

 

Don't worry about it. Since i'm double posting (see above) I think it is time for me to hit the sack also.

 

As far as I see I DID give you a simple explanation as well as did give you the link you need - what else do you need?
I told you where to go, what to delete - what else do you need?

PS: also I prefer NOT to read comments about decency and so when I am actually who's helping the other one who wants to teach me decency, not vica versa.[V]

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by T2k!

Dell Inspiron 6000D: P-M 730 (Sonoma)|15.4" WSXGA+|1x1GB DDR2-533|Mobility Radeon X300 128MB|60GB|24x DVD/CD-RW|Intel PRO 2200 (802.11b/g)|Dell 350 Bluetooth|

 

No problem. Just do what I said - use those secure tools - and your data will be gone.

Went to sleep, good luck and g'nite.

PS: WTF stands for What The... and you've already figured out the last letter.


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by T2k!

Dell Inspiron 6000D: P-M 730 (Sonoma)|15.4" WSXGA+|1x1GB DDR2-533|Mobility Radeon X300 128MB|60GB|24x DVD/CD-RW|Intel PRO 2200 (802.11b/g)|Dell 350 Bluetooth|

 

T2k,
Thank you very much for all your help. You mentioned a comment about me trying to express how much I felt about two people that gave me a chance and went way out of their way with no reason at all. I'm sorry that it had nothing to do with you or anything more than me trying to express to them how "decent' they are being to me to do what they are doing since 5 minutes ater my post for help!

I did ask you what "WTF" referred to hoping it was not what it sounded like (an F*word) as I'm not up on chat lingo! I'm sure I'm wrong even thinking such a thing! What does it mean ?

Heart

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

I am back, over slept and was late getting to class [ )]. Now lunch break!

Heart, take a look at the software that yass linked to. It does exactly the same thing as the one I gave you but runs of a CD. IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN, the software I told you about will need you to do a bootable floppy disk, which is not possible with the i9300.
By the way if you use such software that wipe/format your "entire" hard drive, there is no need to worry about your wireless no more, because anything that was stored by your wireless security will also be wiped out in the process.

I have no access to a i9300, and have never used one!

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by heartofgold

 

If i had to send mine back, I would reformat it, eventhough it doesn't erase everything completely. At least it would be hidden from the naked eye. I would be more worried about my email passwords, bank accts #, etc on my HD than my wireless network. I only say that because alot of my purchases occur online since I live in the a "hole in the middle of nowhere".

Dumb question:
Isn't it illegal for manufactures to resell laptops/HDD with out completely cleaning it off first?

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||512 DDR2 ||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro

 

Yea, they are liable. Which is why the first thing most resellers would do is re-image the HD. 1-step to get rid of all the personal info, along with any weird programs and configurations.

cheers,

yass
<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

I mean did DELL actually tell you not to format the hard drive? if they didn't tell you that what's the problem? if they did tell you not to format you should find out why. i don't see why it would be of any use to DELL to keep everything on there.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On Order:

Inspiron 9300 | 17" WUXGA with TrueLife™ | Pentium M 2GHz | 2GB RAM | 100 GB 5400 HD | 8X DVD+/-RW | 256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800 | Windows XP Pro

 

Dell doesn't care what you do with your HD. They will refuse *SERVICE* if you say erase what they have on your system and install a different O/S, but since you are not looking for service but rather just returning the damn thing, it makes *zero* difference to them what you do to your HD.

At any rate like I said, whatever you did will simply be erased (again) by them regardless.

Yes WinXP will prompt you each step of the way, right after booting from the CD you should be taken to a screen with all your partitions, just follow the on-screen instructions and you should be fine.

cheers,

yass

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by mattypoirier

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by yassarian

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by mattypoirier

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by yassarian

 

is this (from the dell manual) not actually what you want it restores to pc to the state it was in when manufactured. Everything is blown away and put back as shipped.

Enabling System Restore
If you reinstall Windows XP with less than 200 MB of free hard-disk space available, System
Restore is automatically disabled. To see if System Restore is enabled:
1 Click the Start button and click Control Panel.
2 Click Performance and Maintenance.
3 Click System.
4 Click the System Restore tab.
5 Ensure that Turn off System Restore is unchecked.
Using Dell PC Restore by Symantec
Use Dell PC Restore by Symantec only as the last method to restore your operating system. PC
Restore restores your hard drive to the operating state it was in when you purchased the computer.
Any programs or files added since you received your computer—including data files—are
permanently deleted from the hard drive. Data files include documents, spreadsheets, e-mail
messages, digital photos, music files, and so on. If possible, back up all data before using PC
Restore.
NOTICE: Using PC Restore permanently deletes all data on the hard drive and removes any applications
or drivers installed after you received your computer. If possible, back up the data before using PC
Restore.
To use PC Restore:
1 Turn on the computer.
During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
76 Solving Problems
www. d e l l . c o m | s u p p o r t . d e l l . c o m
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.
If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish restarting, and then
restart the computer again.
NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.
3 On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
4 On the next screen, click Confirm.
The restore process takes approximately 6–10 minutes to complete.
5 When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.
NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.
6 When prompted, click Yes.
The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the
screens that appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that
appeared the first time the computer was turned on.
7 Click Next.
The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.
8 After the computer restarts, click OK.


I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA Bluetooth Intel WiFi Media Center

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

Sorry, I was taking a nap, and lost track of time.

I use the custom setting, and I have the 3 in the left handed column checked, as well as the "reset file size to zero bytes". It takes a long time, but it will erase your files 3 times, first time it will fill it with zeros, then it will go back and fill it with 1's, then it will fill it with rand om numbers. The NSA, US DOD methods, etc in the drop down list just means that it will complete the passes x amount of times.

So for example, if you select the three boxes on the left, then selected the US DOD method (3 times) you will have erased you files 9 times (3 passes for each selected overwrite). Word of caution: the more options you choose, the longer it takes. Mine takes over an hour to do the custom setting.

Sorry, if this doesn't make sense, but its kinda hard to explain. I use this tool all the time, and just recently got the pro. So far it hasn't let me down.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inspiron 9300 || 1.73GHz || 60GB 7200rpm ||512 DDR2 ||ATI Radeon X300 64MB || CD/DVD RW || XP Pro

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by yassarian

 

The method that JDD will erase all of your information. The Dell Restore will basically reformat your laptop and put the programs that orginally were on the system. It won't even have your network connection on there anymore.



Hopefully this will help with eraser pro. On the tabs listed below, I put everything that *should* have a checkmark beside it.

Windows Tab-->everything

Browsers Tab:
Internet Explorer & MSN--> everything
if you use, AOL, Firefox or any other browser, select that tab(each is listed next to the Internet Explorer)-->everything

Skip plug-in's and file shredder

Driver Ops Tab-->"clean free space on following drives" as well as the drive (most likely C-drive)

Advanced Tab-->security options should be checked, then select custom method. "Overwrite all bytes with character", all three (zeros, ones and random) should be checked.

Click on the first tab (Main tab), click on "Quick Clean" or "Clean & Reboot"--->both do the same except that "clean & reboot" will either reboot or shutdown after it completes the clean up (once you click on the "clean & reboot" it will ask which one)

If you need more help, let me know [ ]
Amber


[edit] are you talking about the overwrite times in the Advanced tab? it should be set to 1. I was talking about the option directly below the "overwrite times". Its called "reset file size to zero bytes". You can check this if you want. All this option will do, is reset your file size to make it smaller and save room. Sorry for the confusion

 

JJD,
I don't know about doing it that way! That I know about it totally 100%. I still don't know if all the info even though it saids , is removed from the HD!

I don't know! For some reason I'm not comfortable enough....I fuly appreciate you bringing this point back up for me. It's where I was headed before I posted the question.

Do you or anyone know the answer to the question I asked Yass about what the PC looks like after following his instructions?


Southergirl,
When you get a chance please help with the Privacy eraser! Or if anyone else has it and knows what I'm talking about!

Thanks JJD...Do you or anyone else think the System Restore is a fool proof enough way??? I don't know and don't feel comfortable!

Heart [ ]

Karma, It'll Get You!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by SouthernGirl

 

right, didn't think of Dell's own system restore. LoL. Probably cuz I re-partitioned/reformated the computer as soon as I got it!

That'll be a good way at go about it too. Pretty simple just follow the instructions.

You realize that once you do this -- either reformat or use Dell's system restore -- EVERYTHING that you previously had on your machine will be gone. You do not need to contact anyone else regarding removing anything else -- NOTHING will remain from prior to the reformat/restore.

It's the only step you need to take.

cheers,

yass