Erase everything on hard-drive?

[IpreferDosEquis]

Ok, so I want to sell my laptop. My problem is that I run my own business and I have some really valuable information that I want nobody seeing. I heard that even if I delete all my things from my computer, people can still recover things.

So my question is: How can I get rid of everything on my HD so the average or slightly advanced computer user cannot recover my files?

I would be hoping to do this all without formatting my HD cause I wan't the OS and drivers to be on it when I sell it.



Thanks in advanced.

 

[aviation_man]

Hmmm.. Well if it is an average or slightly advanced computer user, they'd be smart enough to know to re-install an OS after buying a used computer.... I don't know any software that can help you.. Maybe someone else has an opinion.

 

[voyagerfan99]

There is no real way to do such a thing without wiping the entire drive.

 

[EGamerHDK]

:good:

There is no real way to do such a thing without wiping the entire drive.

 

[DaveSi677]

i don't think I could of said it better myself!

 

[Motoxrdude]

Well, there are two ways of doing this. One takes a little bit of computer knowledge, and the other is a little more barbaric. You can format the harddrive using gparted and this will write 0s over the entire hard drive. Or you can physically remove the hard drive from the computer and destroy it. Just smash it with a hammer and break the platters inside the hard drive.

 

[David_UK]

I remember years ago Norton Internet Security had a function to write zeros over the entire blank space on a HDD. This would erase any 'deleted' data but would not affect the OS. It would presumably also take hours. Have you tried searching reputable download sites for applications to do similar?

Apps like Omziff and Spybot offer a file shredder facility to prevent data being recovered, but this only works with a file that has not already been deleted.
Consider this.

 

[ROFLcopter]

If you don't want sensitive data to be in the hands of other people then the only option is use a special program or destroy the hard drive. I myself use a program called DBAN. It's like some of the other programs that the users above have stated. It writes the entire disk over in 0s which makes it very hard for anyone to get data from it. Run the program a couple times and not even a data recovery "specialist" would be able to get stuff off it. You have to burn it to a disk which runs during boot.

 

[TFT]

How about CCleaner

It has an "Include" and "Exclude" for folders and files. Choose what you want to delete that affects you personally and include it.
When you have deleted all personal stuff with the normal 1 pass go into settings and tick "Gutmann" this will securely overwrite 35 times, then in the main window of CCleaner under "Windows" tick "Wipe free space" and all free space will be overwritten 35 times.

Allow a long time for this to securely delete though

 

[Tardious]

If you are that concerned about valuable data then http://www.dban.org/ and then reinstall the OS.

 

[David_UK]

How about CCleaner...
...tick "Gutmann" this will securely overwrite ...

TFT this is very interesting, I hadn't noticed CCleaner had this function. I can't find the Gutmann setting though - what version are you using pls?

 

[TFT]

v2.23.993
Go to "Options" then "Settings" and on that page there will be "Secure Deletion" and the default is ticked "normal" (1 pass).
Tick "Secure file deletion" and the greyed out option box will now allow you to choose the gutmann method.

 

[David_UK]

v2.23.993
Go to "Options" then "Settings" and on that page there will be "Secure Deletion" and the default is ticked "normal" (1 pass).
Tick "Secure file deletion" and the greyed out option box will now allow you to choose the gutmann method.

Interesting - I have v2.24.1010
Running on Win2000 there is only one option in the drop-down menu - "Simple overwrite - 1 pass".
On WinXP though, the other options (including Gutmann) are available.

 

[TFT]

Very interesting, I wonder if your XP is using the NTFS file system and Windows 2000 is using FAT32. Maybe the secure overwrite is fussy about the file system.

 

[David_UK]

Very interesting, I wonder if your XP is using the NTFS file system and Windows 2000 is using FAT32. Maybe the secure overwrite is fussy about the file system.

Both my main Win2000 partitions are NTFS. Ticking/unticking drives to wipe makes no difference - still just one option.
I do have some other partitions (linux) which are seen by disc management, but it doesn't know what format they are. CCleaner does not list these partitions - they don't have a drive letter.

 

[TFT]

Can't explain that one, I just fired up CCleaner and chose my DVD rom without a disc in it and it still gave me all the options including 35 passes.

 

[OvenMaster]

Ok, so I want to sell my laptop. My problem is that I run my own business and I have some really valuable information that I want nobody seeing. I heard that even if I delete all my things from my computer, people can still recover things.

So my question is: How can I get rid of everything on my HD so the average or slightly advanced computer user cannot recover my files?

I would be hoping to do this all without formatting my HD cause I wan't the OS and drivers to be on it when I sell it.



Thanks in advanced.

What I would do is delete all the programs and data you no longer want others to see (after you've saved it elsewhere if you still want to keep it for yourself) and then use Eraser http://eraser.heidi.ie/ to multi-pass erase all unused areas of the hard drive. This way your OS and installed drivers remain untouched.