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Best practives: reusing workstations 1

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undrcovr

IS-IT--Management
Apr 30, 2006
57
US
My employer has 5 used laptops that will be used by new employess. These laptopns have been used by previous employess and have sensitive data on them like email, documents, etc. My employer would like me to wipe out the hard drive but keep the os. Problem is, they dont have the oem keys for the versions of xp installed on these laptops. They did keep all of the recovery cd's that has xpsp2 on them but if I reinstall wont it prompt me for an oem key??
 
undercover most times it will but since you have the license for that computer you can reformatt and call windows when it asks for a license after you finish the install and explain its only on one computer and you had to reformatt and they will give you your new number needed to activate it but only if you are using it on only 1 computer for that copy of xp and only the same computer it came on!

Remember free things are fun but they can come with an emotional price tags..
 
The laptops dont have the key on them as a sticker on the bottom of them?

I would format, reinstall, call microsoft, wipe the free space on the drive with a product of your choice, install the programs the new users are going to need and dont worry about it.
 
You need to get Norton Ghost or something similar, it will make this process alot easier & quicker. That is std. practice at most companies.
 
Installation from recovery CD doesn't usually prompt for key (as its already in the image being applied).

You can recover the existing keys from the laptops before you do any reformatting etc, using for example
However, if you install 'normally' using the keys you recover, you may find they won't activate (as large manufacturer's clone same installation to many laptops - usually with a sticker with their individual key - but that is different to the 'factory' included one. But as I said, recovery CD's don't usually need XP key.
 
To delete a user profile.

You must be logged on as a computer administrator in order to complete this procedure.

Open System in Control Panel.

On the Advanced tab, under User Profiles, click Settings.
Under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to delete, and then click Delete.

To open System, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.





313877 - User Data Is Missing After You Delete a User Account

When you choose to delete a user account in the User Accounts tool in Control Panel, you receive the following prompt:
Do you want to keep User's files?
Before you delete User's account, Windows can automatically save the contents of User's desktop and My Documents folder to a new folder called User on your desktop. However, Windows cannot save User's e-mail messages, Internet favorites, and other settings.
 
I think he wasnt reading the topic and just commenting on HD imaging... rather then doing system recoverys to each system.


At my shop we do system restores with the CDs (Hp, IBM) and they dont ask for the keys... the only thing I can say is get an image of the cds and store them in a safe place if you ever over use/ scratch/ misplace any of the cds.

Killing the one user profile works if you need all the same programs for the next user.. at our shop its a mixed bag..

unfortunately we dont have enough consistancy to use imaging.

GL!
 
We keep all of our system restore cd's but the last one I tried ask for a key. This is a fresh install of xp of course. I'll just delete the old users profiles and let the new user use the same programs. Thank You.
 
You are going to want to wipe the free space too then, any $20 software can go back and get items you deleted with no problem.

Google for something along the lines of "Wipe Hard Drive" or something like that for a free tool, or a free trial which is just as good for what you need it for.
 
Yep. Exactly.

If you delete the profile and dont do anything else, I could run in there with something like GetDataBackNTFS and scan the free space and grab a whole bunch of files that were just deleted and not wiped.

This is more of a thing to do before you give away an incredibly old computer, but if it's in the same company you probably dont need to.
 
followup question to system restore..

did you use one cd or two? .. I know with ours we have a system restore cd and an OS cd and you Have To use the system restore disk first and then plop in the os disk when it asks for it.

*shrug*
 
Two cd's. The first one is called 'Restore Plus' and the second one is the 'OS' cd.
 
Probably a decent defrag after deleting a profile would make the use of the less expensive recovery software unsuccessful. Old backups might be more of a risk?
 
Once a profile is deleted, is there anyway of retrieving data for that user?

I deleted a profile and I didnt backup on of her folders. How can I get it back?
 
I've had good luck with GetDataBackNTFS provided it's an NTFS drive.
If not, use GetDataBackFAT I believe.
Google those and you'll find the program.
It costs some money, but it works for me!
 
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