Secure Delete, Scrubbing Free Space, Etc.

[artemicion]

Hi,
Does anybody have a recommendation for a program/utility that scrubs the free space on your harddrive? I'm selling my laptop on craigslist. I've only had it for a few weeks and haven't put anything sensitive on it. I've logged onto my gmail, facebook, etc. on it a few times and installed Starcraft 2/Steam on it, so I've used those associated passwords on it . . .

Anyway, bottom line is there isn't a whole lot of sensitive data at stake, but if there's something free/easy I can do to help sleep at night, it'd make me feel better.

From google-ing, I found something about cipher.exe being a built-in Windows tool that can do some level of scrubbing of the free space. Any opinions on that or other utilities?

Thanks in advance!

 

[WildHorse]

A few of the myriad ways:

a) ccleaner (free version)
In ccleaner, click Tools / Drive Wiper

b) Revo Uninstaller (free version
Click Tools / Tracks Cleaner / Evidence Remover

c) In Windows open a command prompt,
type cipher /w:C: (or whatever the drive name if it's different than C🙂
Press enter

 

[Emulex]

sdelete.exe works great. free. i use it for vm's prior to re-thinning.

 

[stargazr]

Eraser - -it's free

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

 

[seepy83]

Just to throw in another option -
DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) and then install a fresh copy of windows.

I would want to have the peace of mind to know that the entire disk was overwritten before handed the laptop to someone else.

 

[WildHorse]

Just to throw in another option -
DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) and then install a fresh copy of windows.

I would want to have the peace of mind to know that the entire disk was overwritten before handed the laptop to someone else.

Good suggestion, but CAUTION.

As seepy83 indicates, let's emphasize that DBAN nukes everything on the drive, including the OS.
If you want to destroy traces of files you've intentionally deleted and still preserve the OS, then do not use DBAN.

 

[Modelworks]

The only sure way is to wipe the drive , overwrite the contents 1 time with something like Dban and re-install the OS. Nothing else is for certain. Programs can store data in so many different places that guaranteeing total removal from within the OS isn't possible.

 

[realmike15]

I highly recommend CCleaner for this sort of thing. It's very stable and can do the Gutmann method (35 pass deleting). Been using it for years, love it!

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

erase the whole disk. free space wipe can easily by recovered