Selling My Vista Laptop On Monday, How Do I Remove ALL My Info?

Selling my laptop on monday, I want all the info off it.

• I have alot of info on it.
• Luckily, I have never deleted anything via the recycle bin before.
• I use a programme called File Shredder and I have been told that its almost impossible to get information back. I tried the "undo recycle bin" to get my things back and couldn't find anything I have deleted.
• I have never bought anything apart from a T-Shirt from Play.com, which I just signed in with my account on.
• I dont have a vista installation disc, just a Vista recovery disc.

What do I need to do to gt rid of all the information I have on my Laptop so he can't get it back?

 

If you really want to play it safe, get a new hard drive for it.

 

The hard drive is 1 TB, i really dont wanna have to buy a new onr.
I just ned some tips to get rid of the info

 

1TB in a notebook?
Nevertheless get a smaller one that you sell with the notebook... and keep the 1 or 2 hard discs of your notebook...

 

buy a smaller one cause there is always a way to restore deleted information

 

Do you want to keep Vista on it (just the OS) or really remove all information on it, including removing the OS?
If you want to completely erase your HD, check out Active@KillDisk.
Download the Bootable ISO Image version, burn it to a CD as described.
Then boot your notebook from the CD and run KillDisk, this will completely erase the harddrive.
Cheers.

 

Another option is DBAN, then reinstall the OS.

 

I have already said that there is going to be 1 TB of storage in the advert on it and it till cost a bomb to buy another one.
And I would re install the OS, but I didnt get a vista disc with it, just a vista recovery disc

 

Just try to format your hard drive with the disc you got. Start your computer with the disc inside and follow the instructions. No need to be worried, it should serve the purpose.

 

Well what you could do is first copy your own information on a separate usb stick or something else (unless you already did so, or don't have the need).

If you have the recovery disk as a separate one from which you can boot ... I suggest you use the Active@Kill program, then run the recovery disk and remove the personal info that may have been integrated into the recovery OS, and that's about it.

Or you can just run the Active@Kill (erasing the hard drive entirely), and then just give the new owner of the laptop the recovery disk and have them deal with the re-installation.

 

But run DBAN first otherwise the data will be recoverable.

EDIT - This was in reply to Free Bird's post.

I've never used Active@Kill, but I expect it does the same job.

 

So the recovery disc will work as an installation disc?

and I dont think the person knows alot about computers so i can't leave him to do something that he hasnt a clue about.

And I have already put all my person stuff on a usb, ready to be put on my new laptop I'm getting soon

 

1. Back Up All Data
2. Run G-Parted and erase partitions.
3. Run D-BAN.
4. Reinstall.
5. Give computer.

 

Can anyone else confirm thsi is safe

 

What do you mean by "safe"?

 

I am curious too, how did you get a 1TB disk in there (or two 500GB's)?

 

tbh i havvnt a clue
It was given to me like that

and its split 500gb on my computer

 

I just mean that i wont get half way through formatting it, and it asks me for a vista installation disc

 

The only possible way you can have 1TB internal storage is if you have a biiiiiiig laptop with two 500GB 2.5inch drives, and I do not know of any laptop that comes with 2 500GB drives as standard.