Getting rid of data for good

[Sam334]

I'm about to ebay an old pc and want to make sure the HDD is clean. From what I've read, a simple format will not really get rid of everytihng since some recovery programs can still get some data. So, in order to keep personal/financial/pron information out of the hands of the buyer, is there any software that will go through and wipe everything out?

Thanks

 

[ts3433]

DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke, IIRC). Search for it.

 

[Matthias99]

Yes; please search for the last million threads on this topic.

A good low-level format (ie, wiping the drive with zeroes; the manufactuerer should have a utility to do this) will ensure that only extremely expensive data recovery services could access your data (this prevents casual use of 'undelete'/data recovery software). Programs that repeatedly scrub the drive with junk data will make it hard, if not impossible, for anyone to ever pull anything out of the drive, even if they physically disassemble it and scan the platters.

 

[Sam334]

I did a search for "data," "erase data," and some other similar words/phrases. REad through what I found and didn't see anything. Thanks for the info, though.

 

[P0ldy]

Autoclave. http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/faq.html

 

[kamaboko]

put hd in the microwave on high for ten minutes. it will clear everything.

 

[SneakyStuff]

search for Killdisk

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: kamaboko
put hd in the microwave on high for ten minutes. it will clear everything.

Lest anybody *actually* try this, putting metallic objects in your microwave will probably trip your circuit breakers, may break your microwave, and (if you're really unlucky) may set your house on fire.

Also, while the arcing would probably fry the circuit boards that control the drive's electronics, doing this is actually very unlikely to actually render the drive's platters unreadable.