- NEW!
by .avallach on March 10th, 2009
Yeah I would. The first thing I'd do is wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall Windows.
If that wasn't an option for some reason, then I'd boot it up without it connected to my network at all, use another computer to download some antivirus and antispyware (AVG Free & Windows Defender work for me) to a USB drive and then make sure that stuff was installed (and updated and scanned) before doing anything else with it.
by lacskdr-USA on March 15th, 2009
Yes I would. Removing viruses is not a problem. Price, performances, up gradability should be considered
Manoj
by Galeanda on March 12th, 2009
Sure, especially if I knew the person and it was a great price. It's not a problem to wipe it clean and start all over. I've done that before.
by douchebarge on March 23rd, 2009
I have owned at least twenty computers. All but one of them were used. The new one was my first, a Commodore 64 I received as a gift in 1986. All the others were bought used, scavenged, or built from used parts. I have never had a problem with viruses or spyware on my systems, possibly because I have never run Windows on my systems (except for a period of three months in which I ran Windows 2000 until it crashed ugly and I switched back to Fedora).
Whenever I get a new (to me) computer I always reformat the HDD. I would do this even if it were a new machine, since I prefer to install the OS myself and control what gets installed.
WAIT! WHAT am I SAYING?!
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, buy a used computer! It's bad! The more people buy used boxen, the more they will cost! What have I done?!
by Rollie on March 15th, 2009
I took a used one as a gift. The hard drive failed after about 3 months. The giver had a notion this would happen.
Good thing it was a gift. It is now working with a replacement hard drive, 200 gigs.
by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on March 15th, 2009
I have. Then again, the first thing I always do is wipe the drive, except for my last desktop which came with no drives anyways.
by Normal guy on March 10th, 2009
Yeah, and besides you never know where it's been.
by Nerd Thuggery awakens. on March 10th, 2009
I would not.
by Max Power on March 10th, 2009
depends on the price.
I can deal with virii, spyware and the like.
Can anyone help me to bid on ricardo.ch Thank you in advance.
by Lady-05 on June 19th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
last thing you bought?
by abylafoo on May 4th, 2011
| 9 people like this
If I were to buy a net book would I be able to put Microsoft works on it?
by bengodwin on August 4th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
why does every laptop feel cheap and plasticeee after holding a macbook pro?
by NAASQ on August 12th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
I am looking for a laptop for school, What do you recommend? I like Hp and Acer, how do you feel about them?
by allison88 on April 12th, 2011
| 2 people like this
You're reading Would you ever buy a used computer? i wouldn't out of fear of viruses or spyware. how about you?
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Comments
do you think that viruses/spyware can prevent everything from being wiped clean during a reinstall or is there not a virus that good yet?
by maximista on March 11th, 2009
No, a virus wouldn't be able to stop that. When you boot off a CD/DVD, the operating system on the computer isn't running.
To take things a step further, what I would do is boot a Linux live CD and then literally overwrite the entire drive with zeroes, then reboot, put in the Windows CD and proceed from there to format and reinstall. But that's just my own paranoia, simply booting the Windows CD and formatting the drive should be sufficient.
by .avallach on March 11th, 2009