[Discuss] delete windows user data from dead laptop

John Hall johnhall2.0 at gmail.com
Sun Feb 25 20:56:27 EST 2024


I have a laptop that reboots even when trying to boot debian from a usb
drive or in windows recovery. It even failed once running a high speed fan
test. What the heck is wrong, I vaguely imagine, is that some component in
the mother board has failed and timing probably eventually causes it to
fail. Fortunately it's just going back to best buy. I have a windows  user
and wsl user. I really only care about destroying that data and i have the
ssd hooked up to my laptop. I am currently backing it up to a file with dd
on an external Hd.
Bank info is probably the most sensitive info I'm protecting and I think
when you download statements usually with the acct numbers are redacted.
Also an encrypted local password file.
If I totally wipe the ssd they may not be able to see the problem and may
blame me and delay replacement.
I used a microsoft login me at outlook.com
But I used a pin to login to that 🤣
Basically I have relied on not much more than physical security.
What should I do next?
Maybe just erase my user directory ? So much easier on linux as a separate
partition. 😆
I also don't want to take forever. The backup is taking about 4000 times
longer than I had hoped.
 P.S.: backup at 50G out of 1000G way slower than download. <expletives
omitted> this might take days.


More information about the Discuss mailing list