Selling Old Computer. Will A Format Be Enough?

[westy159]

Ive had an old computer in my house for a few years and im selling it on Ebay.

Its clogged with old files so Im going to format the HD. But Im worried that even with that is there any chance someone could access the old files? Im not too sure whats on there but i think banking details and the like - stuff you wouldnt want a stranger to have access to - may be around.

What should I do?

 

[KSoD]

They still could access the files with any kind of recovery software. A low level format would get rid of it also PowerMax (?) might get rid of it.

MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site

Try there.

 

[veedubfreak]

get boot and nuke. Otherwise known as dban. It writes to the drive 6 times then erases at the end. Its good enough for government standards, should be good enough for you.

 

[superdave1984]

Killdisk is also a good one. Writes zeros to every sector on the drive. You can run it as many times as you feel like it. Free too.

 

[carnageX]

Like Veedub and superdave have said...either Boot And Nuke or Killdisk are both good ones. There are others out there, but those 2 are the most popular. Both are free, and both will make it impossible to recover data. And like Veedub said...yes Boot And Nuke is military-grade erasing software.

 

[EricB]

just use powermax and save 24 hrs. what are the chances of you giving it to somebody who actually care enough to try to recover data on a wiped computer?

if they care enough to try to get it (they are at an expert level), none of the other programs will work anyway.

 

[KSoD]

just use powermax and save 24 hrs. what are the chances of you giving it to somebody who actually care enough to try to recover data on a wiped computer?

if they care enough to try to get it (they are at an expert level), none of the other programs will work anyway.

That is totally true. If they care that much there are ways to get it even after using things like Kill Disc and DBan.

 

[J9Darkwing]

Buy a cheap hard drive from your local computer store and apply the hammer method to your old one. Then in your ebay ad you can tout the fact that the machine has a new hd and hopefully get more coin for it.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

The likelihood that anyone would A: care enough to bother trying anything to get data from it and B: be able to get past a 6-time-over DBAN wipe is so slim it's ridiculous. The only exception is if you sold your PC to the FBI or computer forensics students who are learning to recover data...and that's even more unlikely. There's no reason to destroy your hard drive over it. If you are really that serious (which I think is insane), replace the drive and sell it with a new drive, and keep the old drive for your newer computers.

 

[KSoD]

Actually getting hte software to recover the 6 DBan wipe isnt that hard. Just look on your favorite torrent site. Most of them have it. Just cause it meets Gov't standards doesnt mean teh gov't doesnt have tools to still recover those files.