Donating an old computer

[carmeljacques]

I received a new computer for Christmas and plan to donate my old one to charity. I deleted all my files, formatted the hard drive and reloaded the basic Windows software. However, I am aware that a savvy techical person can still get to my old files that are somewhere on the hard drive. As my PC was used for things like tax returns, I am concerned about identity theft, etc. Can anybody recommend a good disk wipe program that will totally wipe out any files on my hard drive. As this is charity operation freeware would be my preferred choice. Also, is it possible to wipe the disk and still retain the operating system or do I have to reload that again too. Thanks.

 

[edfair]

Reload it again after running the drive manufacturer's zero fill utility. This should be available on the manufacturer's website as a downloadable utility disk.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[NoCalAdmin]

I would gdisk it......

 

[ArizonaGeek]

Download a trial copy of Active@KillDisk at

http://www.killdisk.com

or better yet just buy it, I swear out of all the software that I own this was by far the best $30 I have ever spent. The company I work for donates old computers and servers every couple of years and KillDisk will get rid of anything. As a business the worst thing you could do is lose client info or business "secrets" so this will ensure at least some protection. I mean really nothing is ever 100% but this is about a close as you can get. It will do Gutmann's algorithm wipes (which, in a nut shell, does 35 formats each pass writing random letters and numbers) or you can do Department of Defense wipes which does 3 passes of random letters and numbers.

$30 is hardly a cost when compared to the loss of data. I don't have anything to do with the company but it is one of two software suites I own that, as an IT person, I would never be able to do some of things I do without it.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[LawnBoy]

I like (and use extensively) DBAN.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

It performs the DoD short 3 pass, the full DoD 7 pass, or the Gutmann 35 pass. A good write-up of DBAN is at

http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/09/14/178204&tid=79&tid=132