Formatting Help.

[Zulash]

Hey guys,

I'm selling my computer and am wondering what is the best way to format my harddrives. I don't want anything on the computer to be recoverable as there is sensitive information like banking details and computer code (from my own software) which I dont want ending up in the wrong hands. How do I format this computer in such a way that ensures the data can never or barley be recovered?

Thanks for the help

- Zulash

 

[vinesh]

Have a look at some sort of disk eraser utility, just search for one, e.g. http://www.killdisk.com/

 

[graviti]

As above. Run through an eraser program, they are slow, but worth it. Then maybe install a linux platform over it. Then re-erase. The Linux platform will help obscure things. It's not necessary, but the more times you write information over old stuff, the more it's gone.

 

[Deep78]

How about a low level format from the bios or just get a util that rites 0 bits to all available spaces

 

[Romito]

whatever you use make sure you do it at least more than 7 times. I have a recovery program than could recover my entire hard drive if formatted, corrupted, deleted up to 7 times at a time.

 

[ponder]

DBAN

 

[Zulash]

Thanks for the great responses guys, I think I have what I need now