Hard drive erasing software?

L

Lack

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
172
Hello, can you guys recommend some software to erase date from a hard drive completely?
I want to sell a laptop without any leftover from my work there. Would be nice if it wouldn't harm the system files so I won't need to set it up again.
 
Old Hippie said:
No such thing. It's all or nothing.

Dban is great for this.
Click to expand...

What about Active@ Kill Disk?
"Version 5.0 build 5.599 adds new Wipe function that wipes out all unused space on existing drives, not touching existing data."
 
Lack said:
What about Active@ Kill Disk?
"Version 5.0 build 5.599 adds new Wipe function that wipes out all unused space on existing drives, not touching existing data."
Click to expand...

That program would only clean up the already free space so no data recovery can be done.
What you could do is uninstall and delete all programs and files you don't want to remain and then run this program so the deleted data can't be recovered.

To me it looks like it would be easier to do a total wipe and then reinstall windows and drivers.
 
Lack said:
What about Active@ Kill Disk?
"Version 5.0 build 5.599 adds new Wipe function that wipes out all unused space on existing drives, not touching existing data."
Click to expand...

If you think you can find all the data you don't want to be recovered, go for it.

I'd probably never trust my memory enough to be confident! :D
 
Active@Killdisk would work like Lack is talking about or there is Sdelete from systernals. It also wipes free space with as many passes as you specify.
 
I use sdelete, works good and nice easy command line interface. I'll usually format the entire drive to clear everything, sdelete the free space, then reinstall if I'm selling a system.
 
If you want to do it within the OS, HD Tune Pro allows you to do 0-wipes, DoD 5220.22-M 7-pass wipe and the ridiculous Gutmann 35-pass wipe as well. :D

Doing it from the OS obviously means the disk you're wiping can't be your boot disk. ;)
 
Syntax Error said:
If you want to do it within the OS, HD Tune Pro allows you to do 0-wipes, DoD 5220.22-M 7-pass wipe and the ridiculous Gutmann 35-pass wipe as well. :D

Doing it from the OS obviously means the disk you're wiping can't be your boot disk. ;)
Click to expand...

if it is your boot disk that you intend to wipe, would DBan do the job?
 
Almost every tool out there for erasing hard drives uses the open source code that makes up DBAN in the first place, so... use DBAN and you're all set.
 
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