Wiping my computer

[Tystrasza]

I am planning on giving my parents my computer, and building my new one in a week. But I want to clean EVERYTHING off this computer before i give it to them, so its basically starting on a clean slate, but so they cant get information back after the sweeping.. not like i have things on here to hide, id just like to keep my personal stuff.. personal you know?

 

[thealmightyone]

If you're giving it to your parents, you dont want to clean everything, unless you have a Windows CD. If you DO, then simply format the drive (by plugging it into your new computer).

 

[magicman]

For just your parents, you wouldn't need anything more secure than a simple format. True, if one of them were tech savvy, they could recover all your info, even after a complete format. If you want to overkill, just google secure wipe 5220.22, and pick one of those programs. That'd go beyond government standards.

If your parents are expecting an operating system installed, make sure you have the installation disk + key to use.

 

[Shady]

or you could just use a tool from WD to write Zeros ie. Low-level format
it's effective

 

[Linderman]

google for dariks boot n nuke (freeware) or killdisk or copywipe or digital dolly



yeah you got the idea


and reformatting does not erase all data >>>> read what active @ undelete will do !!

 

[SirKenin]

or you could just use a tool from WD to write Zeros ie. Low-level format
it's effective

No it's not. We actually had a guy in here not long ago that recovered all his data after low level formatting. I was very surprised.