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Restoring to factory settings

lubblig

So my sister is quitting school now and she has to hand back the computer she got from the school she went to. Though, I'm currently in the process of removing all of her personal files completely so that whomever gets it after her (if someone does, it's going to be a backup computer since its 3 years old) doesn't get access to it. I'm using a program that removes files using the Gutmann method but when it comes to the OS itself I'm still a bit unsure of what to do.

 

I would like to just factory reset the entire thing so that if the IT guys on her school doesn't reset the computer for the new students, at least I will have. (This is really a possibility, they could easily hand out a computer to someone full of a previous students work without thinking of it of reseting it. So for all graduates handing in their computers not carefully removing their stuff (or even removing it at all), they may have some of their work completely plagiarized if in hands of a lazy students.)

 

Anyway, the OS is a 64bit version of Windows 7 Enterprise. So I could get a legit version of that easily through my school and get it on a dvd and use the factory reset thing in the control panel (would this work or would I need the key for the OS during reset? I don't have that since its a OEM license that came with the computer/was installed by the school). Because for some reason she doesn't have a system recovery partition so I need to use a dvd. Would this work or would I get a lot of trouble setting it up? I've never used enterprise so I don't know if its any different from a normal version in terms of setting up.

 

What would you recommend me doing? I'm currently removing all personal files and thing like this from the computer using the Gutmann method but I want to remove all info about her account on the computer, would it be enough to just delete the account itself? Do any info stay on the computer even after you delete the account? I know that you can use software recovery tools but I'm talking more about finding the files right in the file explorer (like appdata stuff, is that still there or is it deleted and you have to use software to recover it)? If it's deleted then thats fine with me. The info they would be able to find isn't that valuable anyway just as long as isn't available in the normal file explorer.

 

 

 

But basically, would you go through the hassle of factory reseting the computer or is Enterprise to much info I may not know to be able to set up (like proxies of the school etc, I know I could ask but I have to be done on Wednesday as she has to hand it in by then.). What would you've done in this situation, just delete the user account or something else?

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System:

i5 3570k @ 4.4 GHz, MSI Z77A-G43, Dominator Platinum 1600MHz 16GB (2x8GB), EVGA GTX 980ti 6GB, CM HAF XM, Samsung 850 Pro 256GB + Some WD Red HDD, Corsair RM850 80+ Gold, Asus Xonar Essence STX, Windows 10 Pro 64bit

PCPP:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znZqcf

 

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I would suggest taking it to the schools IT department and requesting they do it. Simply removing the user account would leave anything that was installed as "All users" as well as any files not in that users documents folders. If you reset the computer the school is going to have to go back and set it up again anyway so you may as well request them do the job in the first place. I would hope at this point, Formatting and reinstalling would be standard procedure after a student is done with a computer. Just to be certain request that they wipe the computer and re-install.

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I would suggest taking it to the schools IT department and requesting they do it. Simply removing the user account would leave anything that was installed as "All users" as well as any files not in that users documents folders. If you reset the computer the school is going to have to go back and set it up again anyway so you may as well request them do the job in the first place. I would hope at this point, Formatting and reinstalling would be standard procedure after a student is done with a computer. Just to be certain request that they wipe the computer and re-install.

I didn't even think about that. The only problem is that it isn't my school and I don't have "permission" to enter since I'm not a student. Of course I could visit the administration and get a guest pass. But coming in as a guest and requesting the IT department to wipe one of their computers clean would probably seem a bit odd to them. Getting my sister to do it would be impossible since she is way to hyped about graduating right now so she would never go with me to do it.

 

It does seem like my only option though, because of course you'd think the IT department would format and reinstall before handing stuff out to students, but I really don't think it's a guarantee here. The IT department here does so many stupid stuff that I'm seriously questioning if they know anything about computers or if their standard procedure is to give people new computers (that's actually the only thing they are doing, what ever happens, the smallest error, a new computer...)

 

Anyways, I'll finish the wiping of personal files and then try to convince my sister that we have to go down to her school and make the IT department reset the computer.

Spoiler

System:

i5 3570k @ 4.4 GHz, MSI Z77A-G43, Dominator Platinum 1600MHz 16GB (2x8GB), EVGA GTX 980ti 6GB, CM HAF XM, Samsung 850 Pro 256GB + Some WD Red HDD, Corsair RM850 80+ Gold, Asus Xonar Essence STX, Windows 10 Pro 64bit

PCPP:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znZqcf

 

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