Novice Reqs Help Wiping Hard Drive

[shamilitaktak]

Hi, I'm a real novice when it comes to computers- basic use like email, surfing, poker, photos etc- i've just bought a laptop and wish to wipe the hard drive on my old desktop before i sell it- mainly because of these stories about people being able to recover data from deep inside old PCs.

I've found out some stuff about reformatting and disk wiping-is this a 'data dump?' but i don't know where to start.

Will a data dump wipe everything even programs (word, adobe, picassa etc) and leave me with simply a computer?

The desktop isn't online but could i download the software on the laptop and transfer it via a disk without any risk to the laptop?

Am i being a bit too obsessive about this, there's no real sensitive info on there-i do basic online banking and have entered card details for paypal, poker etc, is there a simpler way of achieving this?

Apologies for so many questions and for sounding like a real caveman but any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Forget the term 'Data Dump'

To erase your hard disk you're going to have to boot your computer from a CD or DVD with suitable software on it.

There is a facility called 'The Ultimate Boot Disk' which you can download, burn to disk and boot from which has facilities that will let you erase your hard disk.

An easier solution would be to download a Linux Distro, burn that to disk and boot from it. Within the 'Live' facility of a Linux Distro (Linux Mint or Ubuntu are as good as any) you can browse to your hard disk, right click and choose 'format'.

Know that if anybody is determined enough there's a chance they could actually access your old data even after you've erased the disk but the chances of that happening are very slight.

 

[shamilitaktak]

thanks for your quick reply - i'm suprised i understood so much of it!

i'll do my best to follow what you suggest (i found it so much easier when i broke it into small sections instead of reading it all at once!).

anyone else who still wants to chip in please feel free - seriously, i'm like a sponge on this subject!

anyway thanks again, i'll definately get back with my results - and to probably ask for more help!

Thanks again - great site btw!

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.linuxaria.com/howto/introduction-darik-boot-and-nuke-dban?lang=en

Boot an Nuke every time.

 

[floppybootstomp]

http://www.linuxaria.com/howto/introduction-darik-boot-and-nuke-dban?lang=en

Boot an Nuke every time.

Yep, that's a goodie

It's on the Ultimate Boot Disk.

 

[Anon_F]

Kill Disc works well and will take out everything including the MBR.

However the HDD is then useless, but clean!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Kill Disc works well and will take out everything including the MBR.

However the HDD is then useless, but clean!

Well, it's not really useless per se, it can still be formatted and have an OS put on it or used for storage, it's just that it's empty.

There's a difference between wiped and useless

 

[shamilitaktak]

easy guys - yr goin a bit tech jargon on me here!

make like i've been asleep since i typed in the programmes printed in 'Your Sinclair' ok?

i just wanna wipe any possibly sensitive data, photos etc not any programs or OS's (see i knew that one!)

v much appreciating all the help tho - gonna try suggestions ASAP and will post results

 

[floppybootstomp]

easy guys - yr goin a bit tech jargon on me here!

make like i've been asleep since i typed in the programmes printed in 'Your Sinclair' ok?

i just wanna wipe any possibly sensitive data, photos etc not any programs or OS's (see i knew that one!)

v much appreciating all the help tho - gonna try suggestions ASAP and will post results

Well in that case just right click and delete the files and folders you don't want passed on and empty the recycle bin.

Unless you want to completely erase the hard disk, OS and all, that's about all you can do.