vankjeff

This has got my interest. I know almost nothing about doing this type stuff but I was able, with some help over at Microsoft Answers at my https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/can-i-have-help-moving-data-from-an-old-windows-98/d8d27f17-ca43-419d-b084-a69f109de670 to install a USB Thumb driver onto the old Windows 98 machine and to then use a thumbdrive to go grab all my old data off of it. That was a challenge since the old browsers that were for Windows 98 didn't allow secure https sites so I needed to use some weird browser that they dug up called OffByOne. So, if I want to do what you're suggesting might work which I think I do, could I just go get something using my newer PC, Save it onto a thumbdrive, start up each of the old machines and run something on the thumbdrive that would then wipe the entire HDD clean off everything, including Windows 98 or XP? If I've got any of that wrong, please tell me.

I’d been given that same tip by someone else somewhere, maybe here or over in one of my Questions at Microsoft Answers. But 3 things on what you’ve suggested: I'm told that the drive in the old Windows 98 machine would have a port that only a cable in a Windows XP machine would fit & anything newer has a different end on the HDD cable. With today’s tiny USB Thumbdrives and even littler SD cards & Micro SD cards, why mess with an HDD that has moving parts in it that's like an old music record player & is as slow as a rock? Those days us done. Gotta get out of the ice age. My sock drawer already shares its extra space with my underwear. But the Trash Man comes on the same day every week at about the same time, so there's always plenty of storage space out there.

Thanks but since I don't really know why that makes any difference, let me ask this. Just because something is stored using a different file system, why are you saying that would make it safe to just get rid of? Wouldn't ill-intentioned people still have access to anything on it, even stuff that I'd thought I deleted unless I either wiped the drive completely clean or destroyed the HDD?

Thanks Nergal. I was sure hoping to hear of a solution that didn't involve me playing techie and taking those old beasts apart so I could beat stuff up. I did already know that you couldn't do an entire wipe of the HD that your operating system is on since things can't be done like that. I just thought that it might Wipe enough critical stuff that User IDs and Passwords would be gone forever. I've done a few things inside desktops with help from a guy over at Microsoft Answers when I got a newer DELL Inspirion and he help me get the right cables and a SSD to put them in there next to the HDD and then to install the Windows and things like my 64-bit Office 2016 onto the SSD and set it up for any data to be stored on the much bigger but slower HDD. I love the thing. I had an ACER All-in-One desktop PC before that I grew to hate. The thing was pig slow even after I put the max RAM in it over at Fry's (after they figured out how to even get inside the thing ). I guess it must have a bad processor that's the problem. I'd never known until then that which processor you have can make all the difference in the world on how the thing works.

I'm wanting to get rid of 2 old desktop home computers, a Windows 98 Gateway & a Windows XP Dell Dimension 9150. Everyone, even The Tech Guy on the radio out here in LA, says that the only safe way to do this is to cremate the Hard Drive with a hammer. I've got to think that there's a way easier way, especially if you're somewhat technically minded, which I consider myself to be. So, if I just go thru the steps of Deleting all of my Docs, Photos, Videos, Music and the Internet Explorer 6 Favorites & passwords after I make copies of it all on a Thumbdrive (not an easy do on the 98 machine since it didn't have a built-in USB thumb driver but I did finally get it done after getting a driver using a different browser, Off by One, that allows access to https Secure websites which IE-6 doesn't do), will a cCleaner Drive Wipe make it safe enough that nothing could be recovered by someone that was intent on doing so? If you say it would, is there a version of cCleaner that will run on that ancient Windows 98 and one for the XP that offers the Drive Wipe feature? The version that I find on the old 98 machine that I must have gotten over a decade ago doesn't seem to have a Drive Wipe option anywhere and yet I've used that on my newer Windows 7, 8 and now 10 machines. Same question regarding the Windows XP machine. Thanks for your help.