Software for erasing my hard drive info??

I want to sell my computer and completely erase my info on the hard drive. Do you techy's prefer one software over another?

Thanks,

Pescador
Check out Ultimate Boot CD, it has several harddrive wiping tools, and its free:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Pescador wrote:I want to sell my computer and completely erase my info on the hard drive. Do you techy's prefer one software over another?

Thanks,

Hi, Pescador.

Try DBAN, a purpose built drive wiper. It's open source, simple to use and it's free.

http://www.dban.org/

Lyle.

DBAN run several times is probably good enough. My daughter is a forensic IT tech with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and says it is pretty good.

However, short of taking a HD apart and taking a hammer and screwdriver to the platters is perfect.

jrm30655 wrote:DBAN run several times is probably good enough.  My daughter is a forensic IT tech with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and says it is pretty good.

However, short of taking a HD apart and taking a hammer and screwdriver to the platters is perfect.

Hi jrm30655,

Last year we had an overzealous intern take a box of old drives over to the tech/ops building and had the drives cut in half with an oxy- acetylene torch. It took a couple of days to locate the source of the stink wafting through the office.

Lyle.

Works well

http://www.summitcn.com/hdscrub.html

Do these solutions leave you with no operating system and is that what you want?

sparks wrote:Do these solutions leave you with no operating system and is that what you want?

Sparks,

These solutions render the drives data free. No OS remaining.

Lyle.

Harder to sell with no OS

sparks wrote:Harder to sell with no OS

Would you trust an OS pre-installed on a used computer of unknown provenance? I wouldn't.

Well I guess the new owner could pay a Techie to install an illegal copy of Windows for 350 pesos .... that is if he could even confirm the PC worked without an OS

sparks wrote:Well I guess the new owner could pay a Techie to install an illegal copy of Windows for 350 pesos .... that is if he could even confirm the PC worked without an OS

Why not re-install the existing OS? All that is required is the install media; The key can be pulled from the current system using one of the several free online utilities built for just this purpose. It is the best way of guaranteeing all the old files have been wiped. If this is more work than they're willing to do, the seller can use a live CD of one of the many Linux distros out there to prove the viability of the box.

I'll wait and see what Pescador thinks he can handle

Thanks everyone,