removing personal information from XP system at work

I am leaving my current job friday. I am currently going through my entire system (which I keep very neat and organized) to delete anything that I have here that is of a "personal nature ".

I have index.dat suite to completely clear out my cache, internet settings, temp folders before I go.

I have already removed all personal files, pictures, emails.

Anything I am missing?

 

I wish I could delete my user account, but I have items on the computer that people will need to access (letter templates, spreadsheets, etc). I also have to leave my email on (which makes me VERY uncomfortable) but they need to have access to it in case anything important gets emailed there after I leave. I didn't use it for personal reasons much, but the few people who emailed me there I have told to use my home email.

I have been going through over my 3000 emails today deleting/forwarding anything personal.

 

It's a work PC, right?
Contact your IT department (or whoever handles troubleshooting and upgrades if you are at a small company). Ask them to reimage your PC, this will completely overwrite the hard drive(s) with the basic image (ie Operating System, Applications, no profiles or temp files). As for your network drive (if you have one), that will get deleted when your user account is.

 

Hi, David.

While your suggestion is probably the best for wiping all accumulated data on the the hard drive, I don't think it's an option for raingirl.

We can use her situation as a lesson though: [FONT= "Fixedsys"]If you use your employer's computer for personal e-mail, then delete personal e-mail at least weekly. In case you need to leave your employer, you won't be left with thousands of messages to sift through.[/FONT]

Hang in there, raingirl!

 

You really have templates stored on your computer (IE c:\...), which others have access to? And that's the only place they get them?

What will all those users who use those templates do if your hard drive dies?

With regards to sorting through your emails, if you are using Outlook 2003, you can set up a custom search folder (a how-to is in the help) to display all the emails from particular people.

 

Wow over 3000 emails !

raingirlIT, Seems that you have not been very particular about deleting/moving old emails or is it your company's policy not to delete any emails ?

Regarding deletion of user account, most of the companies use domain setup and only System Admin can remove/disable the account. The user can only delete the files from his/her account and pray that nothing embarassing has been backed up by the IT department.

Regarding personal email, you could set a filter to block those addresses and so anything coming from these people would be deleted straight away (POP3 account). For IMAP accounts, it depends on how the backend has been setup but its worth a try.

I hope it helps.

 

hahah. Yeah. we don't have the best set up here.

I am not allowed to delete emails, and generally I rarely get anything personal (maybe once or twice a month) so I am not too worried about that. I sort all my email and "archive" it every three months to that it is all organized. I just want to make sure nothing was kept that shouldn't have been. And, unfortunately, we only use outlook express which isn't all that friendly for filters, etc.

And we don't have an IT department...We have a guy we hire when needed, but that's it. If a hard drive dies, we loose it all, because they have NO concept of "back ups ".

As for the files, they are just electronic copies of all the letters and reports I have written (there are copies in the files as well) and letter/fax templates and such, which others have as well, so not a big deal. There are a few exceptions, as with some of our clients we send them spreadsheet reports weekly, and I am the only one who has copies of it.

I moved everything that would be needed for the next person (when they hire someone) into one folder, and deleted anything that is unnessary. I have emailed our "IT" person, so when he next comes in, he can delete me and copy the folder with all the letters/templates to the new person's computer.

I also uninstalled all the little stuff I had added (like Picasa, google earth, hijackthis, etc).

Still, I don't feel comfortable leaving my computer with open access to anyone who could just rifle through my old emails, old files, you know?

Also, is there a way to export my address book via email? I want to send all my contacts to my home email, which is Thunderbird.

 

Regarding export of Address book via email - yes its possible.

I assume you have Outlook Express installed in your work computer. Open the Address Book -> File -> Export -> WAB. Choose a folder to write the new address book. Close the address book, zip the new address book & email it. In your home computer you can import it.