I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

John

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:27:22 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

I don't know. She's really good at math ;-)


John

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:


I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson


Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?


What about letting the webcam record afterwards until it stops because
the disk is full, then delete that "video"?


She doesn't want to run pspice?


Real engineers grow up with the soldering iron and build real stuff :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:48:45 -0500, me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:


I don't want to remove everything.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:35:50 GMT, Joerg
wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:


I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson


Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?


What about letting the webcam record afterwards until it stops because
the disk is full, then delete that "video"?

Anything that fills up the drive should work. You could do that by
manually copying files and folders for a few minutes, or I could write
Jim a 2-line PowerBasic program that would output stuff until the disk
is full.

John

me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

No. All that does is rewrite the partition data, file allocation tables,
etc. Data sectors will be marked as empty but not overwritten and can be
read with low level tools.


--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Porsche 928: 0 to c in 2.125 years, 2.435 light-years per mile^3 of gas

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:46:02 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:35:50 GMT, Joerg
wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:


I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson


Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?


What about letting the webcam record afterwards until it stops because
the disk is full, then delete that "video"?

Anything that fills up the drive should work. You could do that by
manually copying files and folders for a few minutes, or I could write
Jim a 2-line PowerBasic program that would output stuff until the disk
is full.

John


Actually, old fart that I am, I remember doing that with a DOS batch
file ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:48:45 -0500, me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:


I initially thought no, then it dawned, format D:, which is where all
the data is.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in
:

me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

No. All that does is rewrite the partition data, file allocation tables,
etc. Data sectors will be marked as empty but not overwritten and can be
read with low level tools.



Sure, it rewrites partition data and FATs. The reloading writes on the
disk. More than adequate for giving to granddaughter....

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

"Jim Thompson" wrote in
message ...
I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave


How about the delete key?

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

---
Norton "Wipedisk".


--
JF

me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet
News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy
via Encryption =----

I'll tell you what, you do that to a disk (not too large, say, not over 100
GB) send it to me and i will recover it and sent it back to you along with
a backup on DVD's.
If i get over 95% of the data back, you ship the disk back to me as prize.
Mind, the only security measure you use is "fidsk, format c:". This also
assumes that the disk was not encrypted in the first place.
--
JosephKK
Gegen dummheit kampfen die Gotter Selbst, vergebens.Â*Â*
--Schiller

joseph2k wrote:
me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
m:

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?
I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands

fdisk , format c:


I'll tell you what, you do that to a disk (not too large, say, not over 100
GB) send it to me and i will recover it and sent it back to you along with
a backup on DVD's.

Agreed. Actually, I am a bit surprised of a complete computer illiteracy
demonstrated by so many otherwise seemingly good engineers here.

VLV

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands if
she lost it.


A Linux Live boot disk, assuming it has a CD. You boot Linux live, and
write 0's to all your hard drives, then write 1's to all your hard
drives, then write '0xA' to your hard drives, then write 5's to your
hard drives, then write 0's to your hard drives twice more.

Actually, if you're not worried about Homeland Security, just booting
Linux Live and doing

$ dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda

would do it.

Of course, you'd then have to install something. ;-)

How about test Vista and give us a report? :-

Have Fun!
Rich

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:32:56 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands if
she lost it.


A Linux Live boot disk, assuming it has a CD. You boot Linux live, and
write 0's to all your hard drives, then write 1's to all your hard
drives, then write '0xA' to your hard drives, then write 5's to your
hard drives, then write 0's to your hard drives twice more.

Do you think all that's necessary? I'm guessing that writing anything,
once, to each disk block would make the old data unrecoverable.

John

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:27:22 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

John

There are free programs that do a simple write-over of empty space
with FF. This is enough to thwart common data recovery tools. If I
remember, I'll see what's on my work computer. When I left my old job,
I scrubbed my hard drives. Those same tools will do a much better
scrub where they write over the free space multiple times with random
data if you think someone will do a fancy recovery of data.

Beware, if you used this machine for accessing password protected
accounts (banking, email, ...), Windows likes to store these
passwords. I have seen a tool in action pull out all sorts of fun
password data. Why Windows does this is baffling. If this is so, clear
off the old drive and reinstall the OS and programs she needs. Windows
is really a dangerous OS when it comes to security.

BTW John, there are everyday tools to bring back deleted files,
including freeware on Sourceforge. I've done this many times to get
back accidentally deleted files on crashed drives and servers.

---
Mark

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:28:40 -0500, me wrote:

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in
:

me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

No. All that does is rewrite the partition data, file allocation tables,
etc. Data sectors will be marked as empty but not overwritten and can be
read with low level tools.



Sure, it rewrites partition data and FATs. The reloading writes on the
disk. More than adequate for giving to granddaughter....

Simple tools can still recover data. Jim is worried about the computer
getting into the hands of someone who has these tools. Heck, a ten
years ago my work colleague wrote up a low-level disk reader in an
evening so we could recover some data off a buggered drive. The new
tools make this really easy. You need to scrub the free space after
reloading the OS.

---
Mark

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 11:40:21 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:32:56 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands if
she lost it.


A Linux Live boot disk, assuming it has a CD. You boot Linux live, and
write 0's to all your hard drives, then write 1's to all your hard
drives, then write '0xA' to your hard drives, then write 5's to your
hard drives, then write 0's to your hard drives twice more.

Do you think all that's necessary? I'm guessing that writing anything,
once, to each disk block would make the old data unrecoverable.

John

Only writing once is not enough for folks with really expensive tools.
However, it is probably enough for Jim's scenario.

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:00:17 GMT, qrk wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:27:22 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

John

There are free programs that do a simple write-over of empty space
with FF. This is enough to thwart common data recovery tools. If I
remember, I'll see what's on my work computer. When I left my old job,
I scrubbed my hard drives. Those same tools will do a much better
scrub where they write over the free space multiple times with random
data if you think someone will do a fancy recovery of data.

Beware, if you used this machine for accessing password protected
accounts (banking, email, ...),

Nothing but project work on this machine. Even old Reson files ;-)

Windows likes to store these
passwords. I have seen a tool in action pull out all sorts of fun
password data. Why Windows does this is baffling.

You have to ask? Bill envisions himself Emperor ;-)

If this is so, clear
off the old drive and reinstall the OS and programs she needs. Windows
is really a dangerous OS when it comes to security.

BTW John, there are everyday tools to bring back deleted files,
including freeware on Sourceforge. I've done this many times to get
back accidentally deleted files on crashed drives and servers.

---
Mark

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

qrk wrote:

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:28:40 -0500, me wrote:

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in
:

me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

No. All that does is rewrite the partition data, file allocation tables,
etc. Data sectors will be marked as empty but not overwritten and can be
read with low level tools.



Sure, it rewrites partition data and FATs. The reloading writes on the
disk. More than adequate for giving to granddaughter....

Simple tools can still recover data. Jim is worried about the computer
getting into the hands of someone who has these tools. Heck, a ten
years ago my work colleague wrote up a low-level disk reader in an
evening so we could recover some data off a buggered drive. The new
tools make this really easy. You need to scrub the free space after
reloading the OS.

Correct. A new system installation probably won't reach sectors
containing old data that lie beyond the old system's footprint. That
data will still be readable.

Others have suggested writing one big file until the disk is full and
then deleting it. That'll probably do the job. The best will still be a
utility that does a write to every sector.

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Our bombs are smarter than the average high school student.
At least they can find Kuwait. - A. Whitney Brown

Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

There are plenty of bootable CDs (e.g. probably "Ultimate Boot CD" with
utilities that will wipe everything well enough that the drive itself would
be unable to read any data from the disk, and any other method that
possibly might get some data from the disk would be very costly indeed.

You will then have to re-install the OS and software.

Any method that does not involve wiping the OS is in my opinion more risky
because it would rely on knowing where the OS does / does not store user
data, which I think would be very hard to know with confidence.

Chris

Rich Grise wrote:

[snip]

How about test Vista and give us a report? :-

Someone else suggested writing gibberish to the disk. I suppose Vista
qualifies. ;-)

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
IRS: We've got what it takes to take what you've got.

qrk wrote:

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:28:40 -0500, me wrote:

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in
:

me wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote in
:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

No. All that does is rewrite the partition data, file allocation tables,
etc. Data sectors will be marked as empty but not overwritten and can be
read with low level tools.



Sure, it rewrites partition data and FATs. The reloading writes on the
disk. More than adequate for giving to granddaughter....

Simple tools can still recover data. Jim is worried about the computer
getting into the hands of someone who has these tools. Heck, a ten
years ago my work colleague wrote up a low-level disk reader in an
evening so we could recover some data off a buggered drive. The new
tools make this really easy. You need to scrub the free space after
reloading the OS.

---
Mark

Better to scrub the WHOLE disk BEFORE reinstalling the OS - this would be
more thorough and probably quicker too. It can be hard to figure out all
the weird places your data will end up - swap space, system directories,
slack space in between the end of a file and the end of the last sector of
that file, etc. etc.

Chris

Jim,
I've used BPS Data Shredder before.
http://www.bulletproofsoft.com/

To do a simple overwrite of free space will take an hour or so. It was
easy to use.

Aloha,
Mark

"qrk" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 11:40:21 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:32:56 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands if
she lost it.


A Linux Live boot disk, assuming it has a CD. You boot Linux live, and
write 0's to all your hard drives, then write 1's to all your hard
drives, then write '0xA' to your hard drives, then write 5's to your
hard drives, then write 0's to your hard drives twice more.

Do you think all that's necessary? I'm guessing that writing anything,
once, to each disk block would make the old data unrecoverable.

John

Only writing once is not enough for folks with really expensive tools.
However, it is probably enough for Jim's scenario.


But his clients competitors have deep pockets

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:28:29 GMT, qrk wrote:

Jim,
I've used BPS Data Shredder before.
http://www.bulletproofsoft.com/

To do a simple overwrite of free space will take an hour or so. It was
easy to use.

Aloha,
Mark

Thanks, Mark! I'll check it out.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:27:22 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

Sophisticated laptop thieves?

RL

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

If you've still got an old copy of Norton Utilities, it will do that
for you.

RL

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:30 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

I don't work client files on a laptop. Either it's on their machine or
on a dedicated hard drive that's bootable and goes to the client to
dispose of as they wish.

RL

Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?
I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

[...many trivial suggestions skipped...]

.....and in the addition to deleting all relevant files and overwriting
the empty space, you have to clean up MFT(s), system restore records and
wipe out swap file(s).

After all, why do you need all that bother with relocating all of the
stuff to a new computer? I am pretty sure there will be the sw
compatibility issues also.

Why can't you just give her a new ThinkPad so everybody will be happy?


Vladimir Vassilevsky

DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

http://www.abvolt.com

Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to
alt.binaries.schematics.electronic:



joseph2k wrote:
me wrote:

Jim Thompson
wrote in :

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?
I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong
hands

fdisk , format c:


I'll tell you what, you do that to a disk (not too large, say,
not over 100 GB) send it to me and i will recover it and sent it
back to you along with a backup on DVD's.

Agreed. Actually, I am a bit surprised of a complete computer
illiteracy demonstrated by so many otherwise seemingly good
engineers here.

VLV

Disgustedly, i find i have to agree with your amplification.

Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to
alt.binaries.schematics.electronic:



Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?
I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong
hands if she lost it.

[...many trivial suggestions skipped...]

....and in the addition to deleting all relevant files and
overwriting the empty space, you have to clean up MFT(s), system
restore records and wipe out swap file(s).

After all, why do you need all that bother with relocating all of
the stuff to a new computer? I am pretty sure there will be the sw
compatibility issues also.

Why can't you just give her a new ThinkPad so everybody will be
happy?


Vladimir Vassilevsky

DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

http://www.abvolt.com

There may be family complexities here, it is obviously not an issue
if Jim can afford a brand new laptop. Youth are typically rather
blase about computer security and privacy. Most professionals have
had that naivety burned out of us rather thoroughly.

In article ,
Jim Thompson wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:28:29 GMT, qrk wrote:
I've used BPS Data Shredder before.
http://www.bulletproofsoft.com/

Thanks, Mark! I'll check it out.


CleanUp! might be worth looking at.

--
Tony Williams.

JosephKK wrote:
Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to

Agreed. Actually, I am a bit surprised of a complete computer
illiteracy demonstrated by so many otherwise seemingly good
engineers here.

VLV

Disgustedly, i find i have to agree with your amplification.

Perhaps, but you should be heartened by the high number of computer
fluent engineers that are on this group too. And the high number
of computer fluent non engineers.

In my experience, fluency is often an age thing. If you were born
before the mid 1950's, you are likely to be uncomfortable with
computers because they weren't easily available when your mind was
young and agile.

-Chuck

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:39:40 -0400, Chuck Harris
wrote:

JosephKK wrote:
Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to

Agreed. Actually, I am a bit surprised of a complete computer
illiteracy demonstrated by so many otherwise seemingly good
engineers here.

VLV

Disgustedly, i find i have to agree with your amplification.

Perhaps, but you should be heartened by the high number of computer
fluent engineers that are on this group too. And the high number
of computer fluent non engineers.

In my experience, fluency is often an age thing. If you were born
before the mid 1950's, you are likely to be uncomfortable with
computers because they weren't easily available when your mind was
young and agile.

-Chuck

I still do most of my math on paper. Only transcendental stuff gets
solved with a program ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:00:17 GMT, JosephKK
wrote:

Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to
alt.binaries.schematics.electronic:



Jim Thompson wrote:

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?
I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong
hands if she lost it.

[...many trivial suggestions skipped...]

....and in the addition to deleting all relevant files and
overwriting the empty space, you have to clean up MFT(s), system
restore records and wipe out swap file(s).

After all, why do you need all that bother with relocating all of
the stuff to a new computer? I am pretty sure there will be the sw
compatibility issues also.

Why can't you just give her a new ThinkPad so everybody will be
happy?


Vladimir Vassilevsky

DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

http://www.abvolt.com

There may be family complexities here, it is obviously not an issue
if Jim can afford a brand new laptop. Youth are typically rather
blase about computer security and privacy. Most professionals have
had that naivety burned out of us rather thoroughly.

A ThinkPad X61s is tiny, which is what I need for airplane use.

This old VAIO has a 15" screen and everything a teenager needs to get
to MySpace ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:39:40 -0400, Chuck Harris
wrote:

JosephKK wrote:
Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to

Agreed. Actually, I am a bit surprised of a complete computer
illiteracy demonstrated by so many otherwise seemingly good
engineers here.

VLV

Disgustedly, i find i have to agree with your amplification.

Perhaps, but you should be heartened by the high number of computer
fluent engineers that are on this group too. And the high number
of computer fluent non engineers.

In my experience, fluency is often an age thing. If you were born
before the mid 1950's, you are likely to be uncomfortable with
computers because they weren't easily available when your mind was
young and agile.

-Chuck

I've come a few "Windows" programmers who couldn't write a simple
command line batch file. They never had the joy of mucking with DOS.
Of course, they find it novel that one would use an .ini file instead
of the registry.

---
Mark

qrk wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:39:40 -0400, Chuck Harris
wrote:

JosephKK wrote:
Vladimir Vassilevsky posted to

Agreed. Actually, I am a bit surprised of a complete computer
illiteracy demonstrated by so many otherwise seemingly good
engineers here.

VLV

Disgustedly, i find i have to agree with your amplification.

Perhaps, but you should be heartened by the high number of computer
fluent engineers that are on this group too. And the high number
of computer fluent non engineers.

In my experience, fluency is often an age thing. If you were born
before the mid 1950's, you are likely to be uncomfortable with
computers because they weren't easily available when your mind was
young and agile.

-Chuck

I've come a few "Windows" programmers who couldn't write a simple
command line batch file. They never had the joy of mucking with DOS.
Of course, they find it novel that one would use an .ini file instead
of the registry.

And I've seen Windows programmers (written up in magazines like Dr
Dobbs, no less), 'explain' some complex data structure or algorithm by
doing nothing more than writing a GUI on top of Microsoft's API
implementing it.

The beast from Redmond is spawning a generation of people who don't know
and don't care how stuff actually works.

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
c (velocity of light in a vacuum) = 1.8x10^12 furlongs per fortnight