clearing hard drive

[nozza89]

hi guys, a freind of mine is selling her lap top and we were wondering if it is possable to completly erase everything on the hard drive so no one could pinch any info of it. i have heard that its not, just wondering what the knowledgeable members of cs know??!!

 

[Munson]

To make it 'completely' safe, you would have to reinstall the OS and do a full format at the same time. That's about as safe as you'll get without sending it to the FBI for full deletion.

 

[David]

are bootnnuke it if you need it to be wiped properly... takes ages though!

 

[spartan]

you mean you've stolen a laptop and you want to erase the hard drive so no1 can blame you for the theft haha dont worry we wont tell.

 

[spartan]

but seriously when the laptop is starting up hold ALT and F10 and it should come up with a screen, and it says wipe hard drive. so you should be able to do it that way i think.

 

[Andy.]

There are a couple of programs which will write 0's & 1's over an entire drive several times. It will overwrite pretty much all data on it and after 6 or 7 passes, most consumer recovery software will find absolutely nothing.

Programs like Ultrashredder, wipedisk and wipefile will do it for you.

A format will still leave most data behind, just because you can't see it, does not mean it is not there!

 

[Munson]

A format will still leave most data behind, just because you can't see it, does not mean it is not there!

True, but it's surely good enough for most people? A full format? Of course, if you've got a load of Glitter-esque data to get rid of, then yeah it needs deleting properly.

 

[Don]

There are a couple of programs which will write 0's & 1's over an entire drive several times. It will overwrite pretty much all data on it and after 6 or 7 passes, most consumer recovery software will find absolutely nothing.

Programs like Ultrashredder, wipedisk and wipefile will do it for you.

A format will still leave most data behind, just because you can't see it, does not mean it is not there!

Zerofill...if only Gary Glitter had used it! PMSL!

 

[@Spoonie]

http://www.digitalintelligence.com/software/disoftware/pdwipe/

 

[nozza89]

True, but it's surely good enough for most people? A full format? Of course, if you've got a load of Glitter-esque data to get rid of, then yeah it needs deleting properly.

im sure she doesn't lol
shes just worried about some one who knows what they are doing taking advantage of the info that is hidden but can be found by people who know what to look for. she was talking about selling it with out the hard drive which i told her was ridiculous as no1 would buy it without one and an OS.