I have been scammed.......now have to have my laptop wiped Grhhhh.

[Sbudge]

+1 for lastpass.

Otherwise, I'd use paper, not a spread sheet. It's really unlikely that someone breaking into your home will be a hacker, and someone breaking into your computer will be. Apparently written records of passwords a very secure.

(I once had a work system insist that I create yet another password, mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, special characters that was not one of the last 8 passwords I had. I ran out of passwords i could remember that met their requirements, so I wrote it on a post it and put it in my top drawer. It was a sort of f*ck you to their idiotic security)

It's often counter-productive to make security measures too complex you rapidly reach a tipping point where high-security becomes very poor security. The danger is people then continue behaving as though they're secure and invulnerable.

 

[jamin100]

£50 is about the going rate for a system wipe and re-install

Takes about 2-3 hours depending on the machine and the availability of the drivers etc

 

[outlash]

I only realised yesterday that I didn't get any system disk with the computer. I know I did with the last one (this one)........do you still get them with modern laptops ?
And I would not even attempt to do it myself...........I can switch one on/off and go to CC---after that I am lost

AFAIK, you should get something that tells you your OS is a legal copy. A fresh install is easy, put the disk in and follow the prompts. It's the time it takes (and the inevitable updates) is the annoying part, it's not tricky.