samsung r519

[georgeriley139]

just a quickie guys as you know this will not power up ive found a buyer but i need to wipe the Hard drive can this be done please if so how?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi George, indeed it can, or better still keep the hard drive and let the buyer find his or her own. You will of course have to remove the hard drive from it any way to do anything about cleaning it off considering the laptop is basically dead..

However if wishing to let the drive go with the dud laptop, first it will have to come out of the laptop, then it can be connected to a working computer.

To do that connection an adapter to USB will be needed.

Once connected, a simple format will prevent ordinary users from accessing the data, or if wishing to be sure it is definitely not able to be accessed by any one, there is software that can be used to write rubbish over the entire drive therefore wiping your data as it does so.

 

However first things first, do you already know how to get the drive out of the laptop? We can hopefully look it up if not sure.

 

Next thing is an adapter or caddy/enclosure. If intending keeping the drive, a caddy or enclosure is best so you can later use it as an external hard drive.

 

Just to give you an idea of what to look for, here is an ordinary USB to SATA or IDE adapter,

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-external/harddriveenclosures/zht01..html

 

Or a complete enclosure, which for some strange reason they are slightly cheaper than adapters.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/2-5-Sata-eSata-External-Enclosure/dp/B000S89NQG

 

once you have it connected, you can access all the data, (Providing of course the hard drive is OK and not the reason for the previous failures)

 

Or, completely reformat it, if keeping it for your own future use, that will be good enough, however if you are going to sell it off with the rest of the laptop, and to prevent someone using data recovery software, you will need to use a data deleting software.

 

A good description and good recommendations for free data destroying software from this site,

 

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/free-data-destruction-software.htm

 

An edit to add, though you might already know how to remove the hard drive, it is I think the third, or maybe fourth thing this guy removes in this video,

 

 

Hope that is all of some help George.

 

Nev.

[georgeriley139]

Perfect Nev .....thankyou

[georgeriley139]

just 1 more are all laptops 2.5"?

[Plastic Nev]

I would think yours will be George. The size is actually a reference to the actual disk inside, so once you have the drive out you can check, the case is around 2.75 or 70mm wide with length being around 4" or 102mm. approximately.

 

I don't know of any laptop that ever used a 3.5 inch drive, though maybe some very early, or perhaps industrial strength things might have.

A 3.5 inch drive is actually approximately 4 inches wide and just under 6 inches long.

 

The one shown in that video I linked to looks a standard 2.5 inch one to me any way.

 

Nev.

[georgeriley139]

Thanks again Nev

[Plastic Nev]

No Problem George, let us know how you get on with it and any problems with it, we are here to help.

 

Nev.

[georgeriley139]

I will and thanks