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I am preparing to sell my desktop (probably on eBay), and I want to make sure that the information currently contained on the hard drive is not there anymore (like my company info, bank accounts, tax, etc.) before I sell it.
I heard that simply formatting the drive is not enough. How can I make sure there is no more sensitive information when I hand it over to the buyer?
-----
If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby. -- Unknown
God is the only being who, to rule, does not need to exist. -- Charles Baudelaire
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That's easy, delete everything; then create a file and write zeroes to it until
it gives "disk full" exception.
If you want to be absolutely sure -- a little paranoia never hurts -- repeat a
couple of times with random data. Make sure to use different seeds each time !
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The best way is to boot of some disk/cd which fills the whole hdd (not just the partition, but from sector 00) to the end with random data, multiple times. There are probably many free and commercial products for this. The only one i know of is KillDisk[^] The free version will zero the whole drive. But there is probably some other free version that will fill it with random data too.
Using the free version of killdisk, to zero the whole hard drive twice should be sufficient 
No "average user" can then recover your data 
//Johannes
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Something like BCwipe will let you put down enough burrying data to make all but the most detailed forensic analysis unable to recover data. One of the wipe routines it offers used to be a DoD standard, but currently the only approved means for disposing of old disks is physical destruction. Unless you've done something to warrant attention from the NSA or another similar organization though it should still be good enough. 
--
You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Le Centriste wrote: simply formatting the drive is not enough.
Really. I don't get you. Formatting is a sure-kill of all data right?
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Nope.
The data is actually safer when you do a quick format.
It makes it a bit more difficult to access, but does not wipe it.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
this weeks tips:
- make Visual display line numbers: Tools/Options/TextEditor/AllLanguages/General
- show exceptions with ToString() to see all information
- before you ask a question here, search CodeProject, then Google
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As Luc says, it does not really wipe it, just make unaccessible by Windows, but some software are able to read it.
-----
If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby. -- Unknown
God is the only being who, to rule, does not need to exist. -- Charles Baudelaire
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Hi,
As I am unaware of the process of digitally signing the drivers, can anyone help me by giving some materials on the same.
The signing process should be general to all OS.
Links to some sites will also be helpful.
Thanks in Advance,
KKrista
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Driver Signing Requirements for Windows[^]
My understanding is that you must complete the appropriate hardware compatibility tests using the Microsoft test kit and submit those test results along with the driver package to Microsoft. They will then sign the driver package with their WHQL code-signing key.
Windows only accepts drivers signed with the Windows or WHQL keys.
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Hi Mike,
Thanks for the info.
A detailed explanation of how the driver signing will have to be carried out will be more helpful to me.
Thanks in advance,
KKrista
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Been poking around this issue for a few days, trying to see if anyone has a potential workaround.
Have a few batch scripts to force updates of print drivers onto workstations. Was going just fine with WinXP boxes but I encountered a problem with Windows 2000 systems.
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /q /b "Test Printer" /if /f "generic.inf" /m "Generic Printer"
Even if the driver I'm pointing to is WHQL certified and has a valid digital signature the Win2k boxes are prompting for the Yes/No confirmation to continue loading the driver. Seems to be similar folks with this issue but haven't seen a clean workaround yet.
I'm not averse to trying to script this in VB.NET or C#.
"I've learned that life is one crushing defeat after another, until you just wish Flanders was dead." [Homer J Simpson]
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Came across this strange scenario would be glad if anyone could give more info on this.
We have an application where the user would click on few links, on clicking these links a new pop window opened!
The no. of pop windows opened is varying sometimes 22, 25 etc etc. After opening these many windows it just hangs and does not allow any more windows to open!
Is there any sort of limit which is set default by IE or
is there any limit of applications for windows xp sp2 professional edition?
gauthee
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Hi
Can anybody tell me how to restrict user from closing an application.
The scenario is, I have developed a time controller/recorder for users. Input form displays in the startup. User sets time on it and then it goes to systray and after the set time has passed, it shutsdown the system after givia warning or, if user wishes to do so, allows him to start another session. I have removed the control box but the problem is that the user can still close it with Alt + F4 Command.
Thanks
How this can be handled?
reman
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I don't think you'll ever be able to compleatly stop the user from shutting down the application if they want to without resorting to use a Group Policy to lock down the machine. Even if you stop alt-f4 they can still use the taskamanager to kill the process.
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originSH wrote: taskamanager to kill the process
Process permissions? Normally users can kill processes running as Windows services right?
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Windows services can be killed unless they are running as a system account. But you shouldn't have an app that can interact with the desktop running as the system account  It then also creates more problems when you want to use the users credentials.
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IIRC the way to do it is to have a service running as system with all the logic, and a UI only app running in userland and use IPC to have the service feed data into the apps UI and restart it if closed.
--
You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Hmmmm thats a nice solution
I'm currently working on Web Service using IPC remoting for talking with its front end. It would'nt take much more for it to monitor and restart the front end.
It's also nice how in the future it should be relativly easy to switch over to tcp remoting and have a central management app 
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hi all
I can create folder with command mkdir but i dont know
How can i share this folder by command dos?
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In order to add users to an AD group, you need to have modify rights over the group. You don't need to have anything but view rights over the user.
This means that anyone with rights over a group can add any user they like into this group. Does anyone know of a way to restrict the users who can be added to that group to, for example, users within a particular OU?
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If the user has been trusted with access to active directory and the group in question then they should be trusted as to which users they add. If they are untrust worthy why let them near it? This is why we have admin's :P
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