Wednesday, August 11, 2010

How do you completely erase data on hard drive?

I'm planning to sell my hard drive. It has a lot of important personal data. I heard that when you delete data from your drive, the data isn't really gone (until they're being written over) and there's a way to recover the data. So how do I get rid of those data in such a way that no one can recover them in whatever way? Thanks.How do you completely erase data on hard drive?
Theres almost no guaranteed way to completely remove data. Even after deleting, a skilled techie could find your files. and even after writing over files they are still sometimes reachable. The Pentagon shreds their hard drives for this reason. Heres an article on how to effectively remove data: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone鈥?/a>How do you completely erase data on hard drive?
There are commercial packages that can ';wipe'; the drive, some are even free. Search the net for things like





secure erase


disk wipe


shredder
Boot from your see Cd/DVD drive. put your Windows Cd in. And follow the on screen instruction to format the drive
reformat your computer with start up discs. do it twice to make you sure of yourself
There is no way to wipe a drive completely with software that can't be recovered. This includes writing zeros and ones.





However if you want to be really safe you are going to have to destroy the drive.





I would suggest everyone that thinks their stuff is safe using software should go here and read.
Right-click your hard drive from My Computer and select ';Reformat...';

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