[angela86]

hi
I need to wipe the computers in my office because they are closing down.
how would I just delete all the work and everything that has been done on them since they were bought.

I want to keep XP on there along with all the programs that came with it.
I do not have the discs that came with them

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angela86-

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go!

There's no perfectly efficient way to delete data without formatting the hard drive and deleting everything off the hard drive. Even restoring to factory default settings will leave traces of data on your computer that, if fallen into the wrong hands, could be recovered and stolen.

May I ask what you are going to do with the computers after you delete the data? Depending on what you are planning to do there are different courses of action that you can take.

[FNP]

angela86-

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go!

There's no perfectly efficient way to delete data without formatting the hard drive and deleting everything off the hard drive. Even restoring to factory default settings will leave traces of data on your computer that, if fallen into the wrong hands, could be recovered and stolen.

May I ask what you are going to do with the computers after you delete the data? Depending on what you are planning to do there are different courses of action that you can take.

[angela86]

angela86-

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go!

There's no perfectly efficient way to delete data without formatting the hard drive and deleting everything off the hard drive. Even restoring to factory default settings will leave traces of data on your computer that, if fallen into the wrong hands, could be recovered and stolen.

May I ask what you are going to do with the computers after you delete the data? Depending on what you are planning to do there are different courses of action that you can take.

Hi, we are giving the computers away to another charity and they dont have much sensitive data on them. im not bothered if they still have traces of data, i just need them to look new

[SRX660]

No easy way to keep XP on the computers. Use a XP Retail CD to reinstall after a reformat if you have the registration code sticker on each computer.

Easist method to just wipe the drives, DBAN

http://www.dban.org/download

FAQ

http://www.dban.org/faq

SRX660

Edited by SRX660, 09 April 2010 - 07:12 AM.

[FNP]

Yes, that was going to be my suggestion. Thanks, SRX660.

And if you're going to donate them to charity, you don't need to keep the OS. Most charities will install another one after they are given a wiped hard drive.

Hope that helps! Let me know if there's anything else I can assist you with.