Two dumb computer user questions:

[Kathy in Cambridge]

#1: what is the memory stick called that uses the USB and can handle up to 1 MG of files? I need to back up some of my important computer files.

#2: I have to give my computer back to a company where I'm leaving. How to I wipe the laptop back to factory settings so the data is lost?

Thanks for the help! :hi:

[Fenris]

1. #1: Thumbdrive?

#2: Kind of depends...did they give you any documentation with your laptop? If not, you should ask your IT department.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. That's it! Thumbdrive.

I need to get me one! :o

I wanted to try wipe my laptop clean. I guess I could do a system restore to original date/settings.

[Orangepeel]

13. sometimes its called a "jump drive" or a "flash drive" also

I think different brand names are called different things, although I don't know which is which.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

16. Do you know how much they cost?

$100? :shrug:

[Orangepeel]

17. about that, maybe a little less

The last jump drive I bought (I think that is what Fuji calls it) was about $80, I think. I don't remember how big it was.

[micrometer_50]

18. I bought a 256 Meg memstick

From Dell for about $50 US.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

2. First back up everything. What kind of laptop is it?

[Kathy in Cambridge]

4. Dell Latitude D600

[Crazy Guggenheim]

6. Do you have the system recovery disks?

[Kathy in Cambridge]

11. Yes

[Crazy Guggenheim]

15. You're all set then. If you have anymore questions on backup

feel free to PM me and give you some documentation that I wrote.

[valis]

5. Back up everything.

You could to a low-level formatting of the hard drive... And reinstall the OS...

[salvorhardin]

7. Hope this helps...

The USB memory drives are called a variety of names including pen drives, thumb drives and flash drives. If you're just looking to go to RadioShack or wherever, just ask the clerk for "one of those USB memory thingies" and he'll know what you mean.

BTW: The number you're looking for is 1GB for GigaBytes. mg would be milligrams. :-)

As far as restoring the computer back to a factory install disk image, you would need the disc that came with the computer, sometimes called a Repair Disc, sometimes called a Restore Disc, sometimes just called the Windows disc (depending on manufacturer).

If you just want to erase the hard drive, then the easiest way might be opening a command prompt and typing in Format C: and hitting <ENTER> and answering 'Y' to the next question should do the trick nicely, though it may take a while. The computer will not boot again after that; it will need Windows reinstalled. This is not a secure wipe.

[SoDesuKa]

8. Memory Stick

I'd call it a memory stick. If I wanted to be more precise, I'd call it a memory stick that uses the USB port. I did a Google search on "memory stick" and that's what I came up with.

How badly do you want to delete the files on the computer? Everything that isn't security erased can be recovered. For your purposes, it's probably enough to re-format the drive with the original operating system disk that came with the machine. The company has it somewhere.

Without it, you are stuck to deleting directories one at a time. It's a nasty job. Ask if you can simply re-format the hard drive.

[demnan]

9. You have an IT person there, or not?

The safest non-tech thing I would do is to copy the directories of stuff you want to keep and then just delete folders they resided in. If you have a "My Documents" directory -- copy and delete the material within. And clean out your email program files as well. Let the IT person do the rest, the reason I'm saying this is because so many IT network people arbitrarily file directories in locations that aren't standard and fooling with this stuff leads to a lot of trouble.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

10. You could just back up everything. RUN A VIRUS AND

SPYWARE scans on them. Then do a format from C: Drive.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

12. First do you have or some have system disks? It's best to

format that way.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

14. Thank you for the advice everyone!

:hi: