Best way to wipe a computer?

garfep

garfep

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I'm going to be selling my Dell laptop, but I want to make sure all of the data is off of it first.

I have the Windows XP CD so starting Windows fresh should be easy enough, but is there an easy way to securely wipe all the data off the computer before I do that? I want to start completely fresh.
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']http://dban.sourceforge.net/

This works nicely. This will not only wipe the data but basically destroy any chance of recovering it with enough passes. I have not used it but it is recommended by Leo Laporte and is open source (so it's free), so I trust it.[/QUOTE]

Damn! Beat me to it! :p

I second this recommendation. I've used dban numerous times. It takes a while, especially with large hard drives, but it gets the job done right.
 
try one of these...
RF4780723.jpg
 
It's not exactly readily accessible, but G-Disk is good if you know anyone with a copy. I use it to wipe drives at my job; apparently it's the same thing used by the Department of Defense.
 
I dont know the name of the program, but you want something that completely wipes the hard drive, then fills it with useless shit. This is simply because when a PC usually "deletes" something, it is still on the computer in a recoverable state until it is overwritten by something else because of space limitations.

Meaning, just because a Hard Drive is "wiped clean" doesn't mean that the original data isn't accessible.

~HotShotX
 
I thought if you do a full reformat (not one of those quick 10 second formats but a full reformat that takes 90 mins), it wipes out everything?
 
[quote name='HotShotX']I dont know the name of the program, but you want something that completely wipes the hard drive, then fills it with useless shit. This is simply because when a PC usually "deletes" something, it is still on the computer in a recoverable state until it is overwritten by something else because of space limitations.

Meaning, just because a Hard Drive is "wiped clean" doesn't mean that the original data isn't accessible.

~HotShotX[/QUOTE]

My old Maxtor drive came with a CD to setup the hard drive. It had that option, erasing everything then writing over it -- it was called something like "Zero Fill Format" on the disc, because it overwrote all the data with 0s.
 
[quote name='Kendro']I thought if you do a full reformat (not one of those quick 10 second formats but a full reformat that takes 90 mins), it wipes out everything?[/QUOTE]

It's still recoverable using software you can buy for $50. When you erase or format a HD, the info is still there but your computer just considers it invisible and when new data is just written over the old "erased" data.

I also recommend Boot and Nuke.
 
Webroot Windows Washer comes with a program to wipe a hard drive. I used the Gutmann Method (35 passes) to wipe my previous hard drive.
 
Alright, I have dban running on it now using autonuke. Does anyone know if I should run this again as soon as it's finished, or will one time through be enough? I couldn't find anything in the readme or FAQ about whether or not they suggest multiple times.
 
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