Backup personal data

I have a couple of Windows XP PCs to be passed on to new owners. I want to remove all personal data off them, specifically ..

• MS Office documents, e.g. WORD, EXCEL
• Photographs (any format)
• Outlook Express mail

I'm not concerned with the OS or any other software

Have you used a product to perform such a task that you are happy to recommend ? I could opt for something that is near the top of whatever Google returns, but would prefer a personal recommendation.

Thanks

Tarfhead,

This isn't only about security of your old files or personal information.

Forwarding computers to people who don't own a license for the operating software could expose them to criminal liability.
No one will thank you if your generosity exposes them to legal liability and you setting the terms of the response "I'm not concerned with the OS or any other software" simply doesn't make sense in such a hazardous legal environment.

Licensing issues arise not only with the Operating System, but also in relation to all commercial [as opposed to free] applications currently installed on the system.
Licensing usually arises in commercial situations where multiple instances of the operating system or software are deployed over a network, as opposed to domestic uses, where the license comes with the PC or software in installed by the owner.

Installation originally over a network means you have a network license and cannot transfer it to a third party not affiliated with your company - they will have to get their own.
Also each and every application that you installed and registered may have your personal information as part of it.

Therefore, you should audit the computers and remove the Operating System and any applications the licenses of which you are not transferring or you may also be held liable.
And no, I'm not representing Microsoft nor am I a legal eagle - I've followed a couple of Irish cases where people were successfully sued because they didn't have the licenses for some all of the applications running on all of their computers.

If you still want to give the computers away you could format the disc and install a newer Linux installation like Ubuntu.
You could install Open Office suite which works reasonably well with windows documents, Thunderbird e-mail client and Firefox web browser and media viewers of your choice. About the only application that cannot yet be run reliably on Linux is something like AutoCAD, although I am told that ProgeCAD can run on Linux.

(have yet to test this out myself)

For home use this should be enough.
Hope this helps, and watch those legals.

ONQ.

That's an awfully long post that doesn't actually answer the question onq. And it's not entirely accurate, since if the OP has a Windows sticker on the chassis, then it is licenced and the licence can be transferred; similarly if they have the original media for the installed software and it has a licence number on it, those licences can be transferred. And the only way to securely clean a computer is NOT to format the hard drive but to wipe it. Sorry, I don't mean to single you out, but bad advice is the worst advice.

OP, formatting the hard drive is NOT enough, all formatting does is remove OS links to files, it doesn't remove the files themselves, which can be recovered with software. You need to "wipe" the drive by overwriting it with data, as many times as possible. There are lots of simple, usually free solutions out there to handle this, but [broken link removed]. Do some googling if you'd like some further info.

If you do want to transfer the software to the next user, just provide the licences. There have been cases about resale of software and licencing, but there's no law on the subject in Ireland, and precedent is all over the shop.

Thansk for those replies.

I am not concerned about software licences or the risk of later recovery of 'deleted' data. My principal concern is to get an accurate 'dump' of all of the personal files, images and data that exist on the device.

TarfHead said:

Thansk for those replies.

I am not concerned about software licences or the risk of later recovery of 'deleted' data. My principal concern is to get an accurate 'dump' of all of the personal files, images and data that exist on the device.

Click to expand...

Tarfhead,

You're very welcome and I'll try to address your clarification below.

Here is the bare information offered by Microsoft addressing the issue you raise in Windows 7, Vista and XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971759

The important thing to watch is this paragraph:

"Important Not all applications save their files to the user folder. You should make sure that you check other applications and the location of their saved files, and then copy those files to the network location or to the removable media."

If you use only Microsoft application and/or have kept your application data files in the standard application sub-directories and/or in the "my documents" folder, it may simply be a simple matter to buy an external hard drive and drag and drop the entire lot.

If you have used unique directory locations you'll have to find these and do the same.
Other data you may need will not be in that location - I refer to Application Data, such as your e-mail correspondence if you use Thunderbird and Bookmarks

Backing up programmes may find all this but I don't trust them to do so - I do it by hand - a slow laborious process and yes mistakes can be made, but in general it supports the "no data left behind" protocol.

================================

In relation to automated systems, most external hard drives come with software on them which will assist you in automating your backups from the date they are installed, but you still have to set them up the first time.

In some cases you can choose a complete system restore, or else just restore a particular dataset.
This can be quite specialized work, but it can allow easy transference of entire environments from one machine to another.

If you want to look at other third party applications I cannot recommend any, but most security suites include a back up and restore facility.

This is quite a big field of endeavour so here are some useful links to help you tread warily.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_software

For future reference you might consider off-site back services

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_backup_service

This would seem to allow access to your data anywhere in the world you can go online and has sufficient transfer rate and no censorship - might not include China.

ONQ

dahamsta,

I wasn't addressing the matter of secure deletion when I suggested formatting, but of wiping the disc sufficiently well to allow a clean install of a new Linux system.
Preparing the Hard Drive using formatting is precisely the correct strategy in a case like that.
In this regard, most Linux bootable CDs have an option to either -The simple measure of formatting would erase all personal information such that the recipient would have to run a data recovery programme to get it back.
A format can be done relatively quickly, whereas a secure delete using the Peter Gutmann 35-pass wiping scheme takes forever on a large HD.
I hope this clarifies my position, but thanks any for the advice on secure deletion - it rounds out this thread for general readers.

Can I suggest that if you ever have serious a problem with one of my posts, just refer it to the mods using the "!" button
This avoids the generation of sour relations between posters who otherwise would benefit from each others posts.

OTOH clarification of what you perceive is inaccurate information [per your post above] is perfectly acceptable.
The intention of the AAM forums is to provide an online resource for readers, and clarification always helps.

ONQ.

TarfHead said:

I am not concerned about software licences or the risk of later recovery of 'deleted' data. My principal concern is to get an accurate 'dump' of all of the personal files, images and data that exist on the device.

Click to expand...

Apologies TarfHead, usually when people say "remove all personal data" they mean for security reasons. I see now you meant "back up" or "transfer".

The safest way to handle this is to back up everything to an external hard drive, because you'll find down the road that if you just take what appears to be the bare essentials now, you'll regret not picking up some config file or legacy doc later. External hard drives are tens of euros these days, and can be reused later.

onq, as I said, bad advice is the worst advice, and I don't see what's wrong with correcting inaccuracies in another users posts. I responded politely, if you believe for some bizarre reason that I'm trying to create "sour relations", I'd suggest you take your own advice. As it is, you're just wasting my time with this.

TarfHead said:

• MS Office documents, e.g. WORD, EXCEL
• Photographs (any format)
• Outlook Express mail

I'm not concerned with the OS or any other software

Click to expand...

A lot depends on how organised you were in saving your files. If you kept everything in the same few directories (MyDocuments folder and 1 or 2 others) then it will be fairly easy to identify the files. If you were careless about where you saved data, it will be a bit of a nightmare to find your own files.