Is it Safe to Buy a Used Computer? - Comments Page 2

If you are that paranoid you should know gaming mice have flash memory in them to save the settings. I personally have no problem with used computers or other related hardware. A few precautions is all it takes to protect yourself. I tend to avoid used hdd's but that is because I don't know when it will fail.

AVG Rescue CD appears to have been retired. The links to this CD do NOT work and I could not find much reference to it on AVG site.
I was able to find mention of it in this post (May 2018) and even this link will no longer work:
"AVG Rescue CD (https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlName=How-to-use-AVG-Rescue-CD&supportType=home) is very old and not maintained so we recommend it's usage only if none of the other methods worked."

About the only way to way to get a computer these days with Win 7 on it is to latch on to a used one. A couple of refurbished boxes from Newegg have been great buys, very nicely cleaned up -- and no malware.

I like the smell of new [ummmm...] hardware!
I also enjoy building my own systems with newest gear that have all of the latest tech-acronyms.
I am willing to pay a 'bit' extra to get ruggedness. This allows me to learn and figure out all of the latest whizzbang features, which [unfortunately] keep loyal to Moore's Law.
After about 36 months, these hardware are re-purposed for friends or a relatives.
While building up an Intel NUC8i7 for last Christmas, I have come to realize that the end is near for this enjoyable pastime of the last 40+ years. Soon, a "used computer" is going to become as disposable as [errrr...] used toilet-paper.

@ Bob Rankin,

Thanks for the good advice.

@ Renaud Olgiati

Please avoid going to the Softonic website
(like for dban etc ) They are notorious for bundling the software with all kinds of crap.

As for me. I've been very lucky over the years buying secondhand computers. IBM,Dell and HP.
Every one of them looked like new - factory reconditioned. of course I check everything
and have the knowledge to boot.
Never found any problems.

I have dealt with secondhand computer hardware for years and never had any problems. You just need to be aware of the traps/pitfalls and take the necessary steps. I have purchased second had RAM off eBay and other similar sites with no issues. One dramm did not work so just returned it bwith no hassles. eBay’s buyer protection is great.. i also recently scored a s/h ‘firecuda’ 1tb hybrid drive for $30 (the seller upgraded to a full SSD), here in Australia they are over $100 new. Installed and works fine running Win 10.

I have bought several refurbished Lenovo laptops from an Amazon (UK) reseller, reformatted and installed Linux to provide my children and wife with a good quality tough(er) machine at a reasonable cost. (Lenovo because of great Linux support.) We have never had any issues, the battery isn't covered on any warrantee but they are mainly used in their rooms plugged in. Currently preferred option is the T410 and Mint 19.1.

Thank you Bob, I'll have to rethink my policy of buying second hand kit, now that malware is so prevalent. Those folk objecting to binning old drives overlook the fact that many will have had hard use for some years, and will be much nearer their fail-by date than a new drive.
Several UK companies selling ex-business computers install new drives as a matter of course; now I understand their motives.
You did not mention backing up your computer before plugging in any second hand kit, but I suppose anyone reading your articles will have taken that as read!!

I bought a laptop from a pawn shop and discovered that a mysterious admin had locked out all software installations, including new antivirus programs. It also would not run the antivirus that was installed. Nor would it run any utilities. I pulled the hard drive and hooked it up to an external drive dongle on my other computer and wiped the drive then repartitioned and reformatted it. Installed a clean Windows install and it worked for a couple of years for me, till I found a really good price on a new laptop.

I have purchased 4 refurbished computers, all with good luck and substantial savings. On all, I upgraded the hard drive with a new one and ran the usual anitvirus/malware programs. I continue to use these computers some 3 years later.

I lent a Sandisk USB stick to a pal, it had various documentaries on it which he was interested in watching, all scanned and cleared OK. He transferred the data to his laptop and viewed the shows, no problem.
He then lost the USB stick and said "I'll replace it".
He bought one off the net from China - he's not very computer-savvy at all.
So, he gives me the stick, which had no labels or markings on, just "8 GB" on it.
Oh dear, but no problem.
I set up Avast to do a pre-boot scan, turned off my laptop, plugged in the new USB stick, and then turned on the laptop.
The pre-boot scan started, showing me its progress on a black and white screen.
After a while it finished.
I don't recall what the answer was, but when I checked the properties of the US stick it showed the memory as only 5 GB, not the supposed 8 GB.
So 3 GB of crapware, spyware, malware or whatever had been deleted.
Also, after this process, the USB stick was virtually unusable.
The lesson is, only buy such stuff from recognised reliable suppliers.

Bob -- Are you saying that simply doing a clean reinstall of the operating system won't wipe out any malware that's on a used computer?

I thought that to do a clean reinstall of the OS will "overwrite and erase anything that's previously on the hard drive -- much like re-recording on an old audiotape or videotape will overwrite and erase anything that was previously recorded on it.