denny57

Hope it all works out GF.

Stomp on that little voice. Hard.

Jazzman

GettingFree

Thank you all for the kind words. I am actually right now feeling incredibly relieved -- and almost giddy!

I almost want to go "na na nahh, na naaahhh nahhhh!" It's like I've been let out of jail or something! And I stood up to the blue meanies!

I kinda don't know what to do with this feeling!

Plus -- I just got an email confirmation I'm being briefed on Wednesday for a big freelance gig with this other agency. Woohoo!!!!!

Where's that bubble -- don't let it near the trees for bursting! (There's that voice again -- "This won't last -- you're going to be scrambling for work soon enough!" Quiet you!!)

(and sorry about all the screamers i.e. exclamation points -- I'm just a bit happy).

GettingFree

Hey Mike -- how'd your interview go?

DesertEyes

You did. Score for the good peeps

You've earned it. Share it Grab that boyfriend of yours and do something.... bubbly

Mike

DesertEyes

p.s. Interview went great. Boring job, but very nice people. Looooong drive, but nice lunch room. Good bennies, ok salary. Pretty good for an old fart with a bad heart. If they offer I'll take it, unless something better shows up sooner.

p.p.s. thanx for asking

Mike

GettingFree

I'm so glad the interview went well. There are lots worse things than boring I've found out. And if you get the gig, you can always keep an eye out for someting else.

But hey -- with all of us here to moonlight with, how can you get bored?

GettingFree

Hey all -- one more question.

I will likely be returning my company laptop (unless I do continue working for them -- I'll make them an offer since I have so many files on here related to the company which will make working on the business easier.)

So I am about to start burning all my personal files on to CD. Are there any other precautions I should take?

ie. my bookmarks, my internet path (Sober Recovery posts, etc)? Can any of that be seen? I want to protect my privacy.

thanks
gf

cinderellawkids

Im excited for you. I want to do teh same thing Freelance. My company cant do it, but Im still keeping my options open.
Toxic work environments are no good foranyone. I keep finding myself cycling back to codie as my alcoholic boss cycles out of recovery into dry persoanllity. Its tough keping the balance.

DesertEyes

Easiest thing to do is walk the laptop down to your local compter repair shop and have them take out the existing hard drive and replace with a new one. Have them install the same operating system from the old hard drive into the new one. The laptop should have a "emergency boot cd" or "system CD" or something similar to do that. If not they can download it off the manufacturers website.

If you don't want to do that then you have to do it yourself

- buy this

http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat1...DE=&CACHE_ID=0

1) run the "Norton cleanup" feature, "express" option.

2) In the "wipe info" feature goto the menu and pick "Options", "Wipe Type", "Government Wipe", and in the "Times to perform" put 20.

2) In the "wipe info" feature to drag _all_ your documents that you have saved into the "wipe info" box.

3) In the "wipe info" feature goto the menu and pick "Actions", "Wipe Free space", pick the drive (I'm assuming only one cuz it's a laptop)

4) Let it run for 24 hours or so.

5) When it's finished you're all set.

The only catch is you have to remember _all_ the files you have created and put them in the "Wipe info" box, any file you forget to "wipe" will still be there. Which is why I recommend you swap out the hard drive

Mike

teke

sorry about this but can you tell me how to delete the password on an old but used comp. i can get into it, internert and all only some sites i get too and i don't know much about comp. but there seems to be set options that i can't change, i bought the thing at a thrift store or do i have to take it to a shop

minnie

Nice one, GF. I like that insanely happy feeling you get after making a decision - always tells me I've made the right one.

As for your laptop - why not burn all the files needed onto cds and reformat the hard-drive? I know to my cost that there's nothing left when you do that. You can then put the work files back on if you need to hand it back. You can only do that if you have the system CD/software CDs, though, I think, so don't rush into it.

Jazzman

GF, most IT department dudes are just going to re-image your HD before they issue the laptop to another user. I would check w/ them and if that's their plan, just burn your stuff to CDs and do the minnie thing... reformat your drive. Or you could even blow away your partition w/ fdisk....

GettingFree

Thanks for the helpful suggestions.

I'll ask about the cost involved in what you suggest Mike.

My immediate sense is to simply burn my wanted files onto CDs. Is reformatting necessary --what's the risk if I simply burn what I want, delete those files, and return the computer?

Wish I could be of help teke -- maybe someone else will know the answer.

thanks!

GettingFree

cinderella -- it took me quite a while to get to this point and have the courage. It also took, just like with lots else we talk about here, being sick and tired of being sick and tired. Good luck and keep us posted.

DesertEyes

Deleteing and reformating will not remove the files from the disk. When files are deleted, or the disk is reformated, the only thing that happens is that the disks master block sectors are notified that those areas of the disk are un-used. The actual data is not touched. Some months later that area of the disk _might_ be over-written with new files, maybe not. The only way to _erase_ data from a disk is to use a program (such as the one I URL'd above ) to go in and physically write trash on top of the old data.

Even then it has to be overwritten several times to make sure it is completely erased.

As far at the techs reformating the drive. Any tech with half a brain is going to go thru that _entire_ hard drive looking for juicy stuff to copy or sell. You don't think they're paying for those fancy cars just on their salary alone?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the computer you got at the thrift store works then all you have to do to remove the old password is re-load the Windows operating system. In order to do that you need a windows CD and some computer knowledge. I'd suggest you take it to a shop and tell them you bought it used, that you want the old password removed and a new password put in so only you can use it. That is pretty simple for a tech to do and it should not take more than an hour for them to do it for you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike