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    I purchased an "open box" machine... what now?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by thecurious1, Nov 7, 2011.

  1. thecurious1

    thecurious1 Newbie

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    Hi All-

    I purchased a Lenovo u260 "open box". What should be my first step? I have read that doing a factory reformat will take care of any security issues due to how lenovo rewrites the disk. Another article says that I should "wipe" the disk and suggests DBAN to do it. What is the consensus? I just want it secure as I start off using it.

    Thanks.
     
    thecurious1, Nov 7, 2011
    #1
  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    I would 'wipe' a disk only if it is leaving my possesion (with a hammer, not with DBAN , btw).

    In your case I would do a full factory restore, or better: download the SP1 version of Win7 that came with your machine (legally) and use your COA to activate a clean install of Win7 after you have verified that all the needed drivers and software are working 100% to your satisfaction. Note that by doing it like this on the HDD the system shipped with, you may not be able to get the recovery partition to work again.

    (Maybe do a full factory restore, create the Recovery DVD's, test the DVD's you just created and if found working, then do a clean Win7 install with the downloaded Win7 SP1 version for your system).

    To be closer to 100% sure: use a brand new HDD to do a clean install to.

    Just curious how you got a rep power of 14 with only 5 posts? :)

    Good luck.
     
    tilleroftheearth, Nov 7, 2011
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  3. Xonar

    Xonar Notebook Deity

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    Magic! :)

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...5516-reputation-points-power-user-titles.html

     
    Xonar, Nov 7, 2011
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  4. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    I would say at least create recovery media first and use the stock image and optimize it as best you can. I've never had an issue with Dell's Latitude and Lenovo's XP or Windows 7 stock images.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Nov 7, 2011
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