Saturday, January 24, 2015

Reinstall Windows 7 after using DBAN?

I'm preparing to sell a computer. It came with Windows 7 (no install disks).


I want to wipe all my data in the most secure way possible, (not just remove links, but overwrite the drive). My goal is to ensure that I have removed any personal data and malware.


I would like to use a tool like DBAN (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15817/wipe-delete-and-securely-destroy-your-hard-drives-data-the-easy-way/), but it says this will remove the recovery partition here (http://www.howtogeek.com/171980/how-to-prepare-a-computer-tablet-or-phone-before-selling-it/).


In that page, it also says "If your laptop or desktop computer has a traditional magnetic hard drive, it’s possible for people to recover the data from the hard drive even after you reformat it and reinstall the operating system. This is because reinstalling the operating system won’t erase every sector of the disk."


So, is it possible to both eliminate the possibilities of someone recovering my data and/or malware resurrecting itself, and still be able to install Windows without hassle afterwards? What would be the easiest way to accomplish this?


PS:
I believe I have malware that is preventing me from booting to Windows. I can boot from a Ubuntu USB.

No comments:

Post a Comment

linux - How to SSH to ec2 instance in VPC private subnet via NAT server

I have created a VPC in aws with a public subnet and a private subnet. The private subnet does not have direct access to external network. S...