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A couple of years ago I bought a cheap HP laptop. I hated it right from the start. It was difficult to use. It had a temporary version of Windows installed. When it expired after the three or six months, I just let it go. It was then completely useless. I put the computer away and completely forgot about it. And I mean completely. It passed entirely from my mind.

I had to give my head a shake today when I found a laptop in the back of a closet and wondered where it came from. Then it all came back to me.

Now, I'm thinking I should try to sell it an get some of my money back out of it. Here's my question. If someone gets it and installs windows, will they have access to all my files and information, all my photos etc? If, as I expect, the answer is yes, is there a way I can delete all of that first?

Yes, you should remove your data and wipe the machine. Consider just pulling out the hard drive and sell it without a drive.

If you have another computer, you can create a usb thumbdrive which you can make a bootdrive with a formatting program. Its complicated.

If the machine is too old and too cheap (check the going rate on ebay) you might just run a drill through the hard drive and recycle it.

It's only two years old. I was hoping I could sell it in usable condition without selling all the data. I do some consulting and advocacy work and there could be some confidential client information there.

So it might be best just to destroy it

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 09, 2019 7:57 pm

It's only two years old. I was hoping I could sell it in usable condition without selling all the data. I do some consulting and advocacy work and there could be some confidential client information there.

So it might be best just to destroy it

Unless you can reformat it, you would be selling it with data on it. I doesn't boot at all? Any version of Windows has a reformat utility.

It boots up OK. I just don't have access to anything. Where would I look for this reformat feature?

What does it boot up to? Is it a version of windows or just a prompt?

Give me a model and I can do some research

It just looks like the normal desktop with the icons. The start menu is there, you just can't open any programs like word, excel etc.

Ok watch this video and see it is works

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nzcsP-r-sBE

This might be closer to your laptop...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pwrbclr25dA

I'm finding that I can select individual files and documents and delete them. Will that completely remove them from the computer?

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 09, 2019 8:32 pm

I'm finding that I can select individual files and documents and delete them. Will that completely remove them from the computer?

No, deleted files can be restored. I would recommend a factory reset.

I'm trying to do it as per the video. But then it tells me I'm running out of disc space and I have to delete files. I've already deleted all my files.

Let me see if I can troubleshoot that. It is probably unpacking the setup files and you don't have enough space. Do you have the option of setting up files on a USB thumb drive?

The only thing I see is uninstalling Office and other programs on the computer. Since you can't use the, removing them would be fine.

Our two sons are both tech professionals. I'd better just wait and get one of them to help me.