Is there a way to completely get rid of that information without shredding my HD?
I used CCleaner to "wipe free space" but I'm not sure that did anything regarding my question.
Information on a hard drive can always be recovered. But it gets much harder to recover data depending on the method you used to erase/destroy the data on the hard drive.
- If you didnt delete anything, then its an easy recovery!
- If you format the hard drive, its more difficult to recover; but still possible with the right know-how/equipment/programs.
- If you format and overwrite (3 times or more) the data its very difficult to recover, but maybe its still possible with the right know-how/equipment/programs.
- If you burn the hard drive its nearly impossible to recover data, but still possible with some very expensive and advanced know-how/equipment/programs.
- But the only way to be completely, absolutely, without a doubt, TOTALLY SURE that NOTHING is recoverable is to degauss the hard drive then shred the hard drive into VERY small fragments.
Wiping the free space means it overwrote all the empty areas of the hard drive so that its clean and essentially blank for other use.
But if you are really worried about reselling it and don't want ANY potential for discovering any info, then think about how confidential the data is on your computer. Do you have item(s) on your hard drive of proprietary, government, very-highly private personal info or classified information. If you determine that you have info of that nature and it is of great concern to you, then install a new hard drive and install the OS to the new HDD. Then have the old hard drive shredded (or just hang onto it!). Shredding the hard drive is about the only way of making ABSOLUTELY sure nothing can ever be recovered, but it's obviously a very extreme method. Usually only governments, and anyone dealing with highly confidential info use this practice of shredding.
Less extreme than that would be to run a program like KillDisk, or the Windows Format, or D-BAN.
Even less extreme, you could reinstall the OS and then run Eraser (I've used recently) or CCleaner and select to then wipe the free space. I wouldnt consider this as secure, but its good enough for most people's needs. I used Eraser recently to wipe a portable hard drive and I had pretty good results. While files were found (using Recuva from Piriform), nothing was actually recoverable.
I like Eraser because you could use it in your case to accomplish this task with ease. You could reinstall the OS then install Eraser and choose to run the program at startup to eliminate all free space info. And though there is an option for the Gutmann 35 passes, its pretty unnecessary as it's overkill. If you need 35 overwrites, just shred the drive. The DOD 5220 triple pass is adequate for nearly everyone's needs.
What kind of hard drive is it, brand/model, how is it formatted (NTFS, FAT, FAT-32), what OS is on it, are you using a RAID setup? Also, do you have a desktop you could slave this hard drive to?
Has the hard drive has any issues, such as:
- Have you heard any hard clicking?
- Does it take a long time to access info on the hard drive?
- Has it ever been subjected to drops or abuse?
- Have you had any BSOD's related to the hard drive?
- Does the hard drive get overly hot while running?
Consider who you would be selling it to... would they really take the time and trouble to painstakingly try to recover lots and lots of nothing in hopes there will be
something you left behind? The vast majority of people aren't going to be concerned with what you had on the hard drive. They will be a lot more concerned with their own stuff they will be saving to that hard drive.