Chuck

Not sur eif this is the most appropriate sub-topic, but I'll get started and I'm sure some kind sould will redirect me if required. I am donating a 5 year old laptop to a friend's daughter. it runs XP updated with SP3. Over the years it has been used for some sensitive stuff including bank & credit card a't want accounts. Naturally I want to comlpetely erase this data. But I want to leave the operating system and the already paid for software on it. I thought I was being clever using File Shredder for the remaining files and also its shred free space option to remove all the files that long ago got pushed out of the recycle bin (or that bypassed it). So I just ran UndeletePLus and was amazed to find hundreds of perfectly recoverable files, some just spill over from recycle bin, others in what would normally be in hidden system folders leaving tracks to old software, websites, etc I recovered a few at random and was aghast at what personal information I found! What am I doing wrong? I assumed all that would be left is what is currently in the recycle bin and current operating system files.

Thanks ! Didn't get the subtlety of burying down into the sub-topics.

Well, I'm struggling before the first hurdle here. I want to ask a question in computer security, but I can't see the "post new thread" button. Presumably it looks the same and is as obvious as it was on this introduction section?