How does one clean computer before donation or trashing? (1 Viewer)

[DustinLC]

I keep my banking, addresses, numbers, journals and a lot of important personal informations on my computers, enough to create another me.

1. Before donating, how can I ensure that my personal informations can't be retrieved after I deleted it. You hear how people say that informations are never deleted even though you trashed it.

2. Before the trash man picks it up. This is different than above I suppose because I don't care if it's still functioning. How can I kill it to make sure no one can retrieve my personal stuffs?

 

[Richard Travale]

you could rip the HD out.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

FDISK it.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

The only 100% foolproof way to make sure your saved information will NEVER be retrieved is to physically destroy the hard drive.

You have to physically remove the HD from the computer case before destroying it however you please (I'm fond of hammering it followed by fire)

 

[Ken Scott]

format the disk...... if u have another pc, toss the hard drive in the other pc and set it as slave go into windows assuming its xp, go to disk management and do a full format.

 

[Todd_B]

Formatting the disk doesn't get rid of the data, it just moves it around. I've recovered whole drives that have been formatted, so don't think that your data is secure after you run FDISK

As stated, just destroy the disk or use a program like Kill Disk.

Todd B

 

[Chas_T]

Todd,

Thanks for that link on Kill Disk. I've been looking for something like that to keep in my utility tool box!!!

Charles

 

[Martin Rendall]

Wouldn't doing a low level format seven times take care of it?

Martin.

 

[Ken Scott]

or just toss it in a microwave and get a 2gb hard drive at a 2nd hand store for 2 bux

 

[Kevin P]

Most low level formats nowadays don't really format, they just scan the disk for bad sectors, update the bad sector table, and blank out the partition table. The data will still be there.

You would need a utility that overwrites every sector. Multiple times is better, but that's overkill in most cases. Even one overwrite will be sufficient unless one spends thousands of dollars on a data recovery specialist.

Alternatively, remove the drive and take it apart. Use the platters as cubicle/office decorations. Or smash it with a sledgehammer.

 

[Ken Scott]

or use it to fix a table thats wobbley.

 

[Seth--L]

The safest thing to do is remove the hard drive and go at it with a hammer.

If you're going to donate the computer, just buy a cheap few gig drive off ebay to replace the old one with.

 

[DustinLC]

Formatting the disk doesn't get rid of the data, it just moves it around. I've recovered whole drives that have been formatted, so don't think that your data is secure after you run FDISK

See these are the people I'm talking about

So basically you guys are pretty much saying don't donate your computer then? Who wants a computer without a HD?

However, there are some real good suggestion about how to destroy a computer for trashing. Not sure about the microwave idea though . I've seen enough movies to know what happens.

 

[Ken Scott]

lol yeah. i want to see it. u ever put a cd in a microwave? its awesome, u see like electricity. do it for 3-4 secs only though, i set 1 on fire once... hehe oops.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

If you use Ghost, there is a utility on the CD called GDISK. It's command-line replacement for FDISK but includes an option to wipe the disk by rewriting over the entire surface as many times as you want. There's even an option for DoD mode, which is supposed to wipe the disc to Depart of Defense (sic)- standards.

 

[John_Berger]

All of the following packages are approved by the United States Department of Defense for data erasure.

http://www.ontrack.com/dataeraser - $29.95

http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive.php - $39.95

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm (already mentioned) - Free

 

[Michael*K]

How can I kill it to make sure no one can retrieve my personal stuffs?

Explosives or a hammer works well.

 

[Todd_B]

So basically you guys are pretty much saying don't donate your computer then? Who wants a computer without a HD?

(as mentioned) By all means, donate the PC. There are plenty of places that are need of PCs

Just replace the HD w/a cheapy one that you can get from Ebay or wherever.

Todd B

 

[Christian Behrens]

This is a good tool to have as well (free):
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Erasing the crucial files with this, followed by a defragmentation should already be enough.

-Christian

 

[Rob Lutter]

You need to kill it to be sure that no one will ever get your data.

Plus it's fun