wipe computers harddrive before giving away

c1979

I am giving away an old computer but I need to wipe the hard drive as I have some confedential documents and personal documents. Is there any programmes available free of the net?

Thanks

Teamhar

Your best bet is to format the disk. Boot the PC with the original Windows or recovery CD that came with it and follow the instruction on screen. If you're really worried, take out the hard disk and keep it- let the new owner buy a new one and they can take care of installing an operating system.

radiospan

I always thought it seemed like overkill, but some people like to use this:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

You put it on a boot floppy or CD, and it completely erases everything (more than just a format I think). Someone else here might know the details.

Khannie

dban ftw

I wouldn't sell a hard drive without using it. A freshly formatted hard drive is an invitation to unformat IMO and the guy who wrote dban is unquestionably the most paranoid nutjob I've ever come across. Your data wiping is safe in his hands.

mathias

If you have confidential docs on there , or had , then use dban ,

It does seem like overkill at first , but if you have ever downloaded any of the many available recovery programs you'll see how easy it is to get stuff back of a standard formatted drive ....its no joke ,

So Dban , its not that paranoid after all !

If they were really sensitive docs , like business accounts , political party donations , or anything like that , take out the hard drive and drive you car over it ...Im not joking either

RoyalMarine

mathias wrote: »

If you have confidential docs on there , or had , then use dban ,

It does seem like overkill at first , but if you have ever downloaded any of the many available recovery programs you'll see how easy it is to get stuff back of a standard formatted drive ....its no joke ,

So Dban , its not that paranoid after all !

If they were really sensitive docs , like business accounts , political party donations , or anything like that , take out the hard drive and drive you car over it ...Im not joking either

driving a car over it wont do much good. what you need is a plactic bag, a grinder and a heavy duty saw.

srdb20

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

driving a car over it wont do much good. what you need is a plactic bag, a grinder and a heavy duty saw.

Or get yourself a hatchet and go to town on the hard drive!!!! Come on you know you want to!

Honestly though when most people are destroying a Hard Drive for good, they will usually drill it through to guarantee it cant be used again for anything other than a shinny frisbe.

ricka05

srdb20 wrote: »

Or get yourself a hatchet and go to town on the hard drive!!!! Come on you know you want to!

Honestly though when most people are destroying a Hard Drive for good, they will usually drill it through to guarantee it cant be used again for anything other than a shinny frisbe.

I thing he asked how to clean a hdd not to destroy it......:D