Getting rid of old computer

[D_Wreck11]

Is there really a reliable erase program out there that will prevent account information from being accesible from an old computer? I can get a new computer, but the catch is I have to donate the old one, and I've always heard that destroying the hard drive is the only way to safely avoid future problems.

 

[MilkmanDan]

One of these should get the job done.

 

[KMcCoy33]

I usually just reformat everything on old computers. It seems to be the quickest. I don't know how they would still get information off of it if everything is erased and reloaded. I would think most stuff that you wouldn't be able to just erase normally would be in the registry, but reformatting the drive should do that for you. If there is a way after that to get the information still, I don't think there are more than a handful of people that could do it and if they are able to do **** like that, they sure as hell wouldn't be wasting time doing it on home computer.

 

[EEE]

formatting a drive just wipes out the allocation tables and checks the disk sectors. your data can still be pretty easily recovered. for greater security you need to overwrite every bit on the disk. i think the d.o.d. standard is fill with 1's, then 0's, then random bits.

a low level format should do 1 pass of something like that. it can also take a very long time to do. there are a bunch of free utilities out there that do this sort of thing.

 

[RiceHorn04]

A program called BCWipe will do the job. Its available for free and will overwrite every segment of data.

On old computers I get rid of, I BCWipe the contents (7 passes), bury the hard drive in the back yard, and sell anything of value on EBay. Pitch the case.

 

[goofybevo]

Yeah, never think that formatting is going to do the job. Get a free utility that overwrites with 1s and 0s.

 

[UTinBigD]

www.heidi.ie/eraser/

i use this. it has several choices on how well to wipe your drive.

There was a funny news story in Dallas where they went and bought old computers from the Salvation Army. Then got address, SS#, credit card info of them and went and found the original owners.

 

[bevolution]

I had an old computer that a while back I tried to sell. At the time, I figured that reformatting and reinstalling the OS was enough. A couple of years late I never sold it, but inow want to donate it. Iknow now I need to do more, so at the suggestion of ricehorn, I downloaded BCWipe v.3 and have already begun wiping it.

I am attempting to
- Wipe free disk space
- Wipe Swap File
- Wipe Empty Directory Entries
- Wipe File Slacks.

on the website it says for the "Wipe free disk space" command, "you can completely remove all traces of previously deleted files"

I have no idea what was deleted originally, before reformatted and reinstalled the OS. Does this action just clean up "deleted" files that could still be there in the free space from before I reformatted, or does it write all zeros regardless of what was there?

If not then I think I am going to wipe the entire hardrive, but then I'll have to reistall the OS:

- Wipe an entire hard drive. This function removes all information from hard drives. This enables you to sell or dispose of your computer/hard disks, or re-assign it to another user, safe in the knowledge that your previously stored information has gone for ever. The BCWipe system includes the command-line BCWipePD (BCWipe Physical Drive) utility which can be used for all physical sectors on a disk.