How do I prep a X41 Tablet before selling it

[RRHODY]

Ordinarily before selling a laptop, I'd wipe the drive clean or sell it without the hard drive, but with this tablet requiring Win XP for tablets, which not everyone would have, that process doesn't seem proper. Also, removing the drive won't work because not everyone has the hard drive for the X41, besides, I have no use for the X41 drive. I don't have recovery disks either. What to do? Is there a simple way to "clean" the drive of my personal stuff [sorry for the untechnical term] and leave the OS in tact?

[mediasponge]

One way would be to first delete all the personal data, then "clone" the drive to a drive image file on an external USB drive, then wipe the internal drive completely and securely and then restore it from the image. This will work if the following are true: 1) It's a Windows-only machine with no multi-boot 2) You use a file-based drive cloner like Acronis True Image so unused sectors are not backed up. Note that you need to archive to a drive image FILE, not simply clone the internal drive to another drive and clone back. Given the size of USB drives today, cloning a small X41T drive to an image file should be no problem.

There are also programs that claim to "shred" the free space on a drive without requiring you to wipe and restore the drive. You might want to search for that.

You could also put a request on the Marketplace looking for recovery disks. They can be found.

[RRHODY]

Thanks for the response.
If the restore disks are readily available, should I wipe the drive and expect the buyer to restore to their own specifications? Of course, it wouldn't be as salable with a wiped drive.
I need further explanation:
If I'm successful in removing my "personal" stuff, why use acronis and wipe the drive? Is there personal stuff that I couldn't remove but that would be available to someone else?

[Harryc]

Spend the 20 or 30 bucks and get a set of Windows XP tablet PC edition Recovery discs from the Marketplace forum. It will make the machine more valuable. Once you run the recovey routine it will erase and partition the drive...no muss, no fuss.

[RRHODY]

If the laptop is wiped and then the R&R disks used the unit would be way out of date and require replacement of both Lenovo and MS updates. Wouldn't it be better to leave it up to date and delete personal stuff? Is there a real danger if I overlook something and don't delete it? If it was never used for business, but only leisure use, what's the down side of leaving legitimate programs loaded?

[Harryc]

The danger is that even if you delete personal data it can be retrieved using any number of utilities designed for data recovery.

[mediasponge]

Personal data cannot be retrieved if the disk is wiped to DES or better standards, though going farther than DES is overkill, IMO. If the wiped disk is restored from a drive image that does *not* contain images of unused sectors (a file-based image), then the machine should be safe. Acronis creates file-based drive images, unless you have a partition it does not directly understand, then it does sector-based images. For XP on NTFS, this should work. Basically, the process of image, wipe, restore will wipe all the free space on the drive and only keep the actual files the user wants left on the machine, the files saved in the drive image.

[Harryc]

Personal data cannot be retrieved if the disk is wiped to DES or better standards

That's not what the OP stated he planned to do.

[mediasponge]

The OP asked how to safely remove his personal data and leave the OS install intact and working. What I advised him to do will work, if done properly. Image the drive, wipe the drive, restore the drive will do that. There would be no "old data" in unused sectors after that procedure.

[Harryc]

OK, I see what you are saying ... that's a bit of work though. To the OP, the other issue is that if you just delete personal data how do you know you got it all? What about the registry? Hidden files and folders?. I advise against doing this.

[jronald]

Use the recovery CDs. At most, reloading the missing MS bs will be 4 hours. Then ask a bit more for the machine, because you are including the CDs.

Ron

[loyukfai]

OK, I see what you are saying ... that's a bit of work though. To the OP, the other issue is that if you just delete personal data how do you know you got it all? What about the registry? Hidden files and folders?. I advise against doing this.

Ditto. Windows and apps store data everywhere. Wipe the drive and install clean.

Cheers.

[RRHODY]

Thanks to all. I have ordered the R&R.