Permanently Deleting Hard Drive Files

[kaiser78]

I have an 1 year old laptop which I am looking to get rid of, as the wife wants to buy an ipad.

I would like to donate to a local charity or give away to friends, the issue I have is being able to permanently download my personal files without having to format the c: drive.

Are there any recommended tools that would enable me to do this in a safe yet permanent manner ?

TIA

[kingcook]

I have an 1 year old laptop which I am looking to get rid of, as the wife wants to buy an ipad.

I would like to donate to a local charity or give away to friends, the issue I have is being able to permanently download my personal files without having to format the c: drive.

Are there any recommended tools that would enable me to do this in a safe yet permanent manner ?

TIA

File Shredder

[kingcook]

If you wanted to permanently delete the entire hard disc (o/s included) boot up with a Linux live distro, and check out the "scrub" command. It's great for scrubbing entire partitions.

[Sockpuppet]

I recently threw out ~10 years of associated hard drives. Around 12 or so. The easiest way to make them "clean" was to make sure they were no longer hard drives sou out came the angle grinder.


I have no worries about anyone being able to read the files now.


If it was me I'd buy a new HDD for cheapness and replace it.

[kingcook]

I recently threw out ~10 years of associated hard drives. Around 12 or so. The easiest way to make them "clean" was to make sure they were no longer hard drives sou out came the angle grinder.

I have no worries about anyone being able to read the files now.

If it was me I'd buy a new HDD for cheapness and replace it.

What a waste!! May as well go and give the money spent on a new HD direct to the charity, and bin the laptop (and angle grind the HD of course )

Some file shredder app is good enough IMO. But each to their own.

[SimonMac]

I recently threw out ~10 years of associated hard drives. Around 12 or so. The easiest way to make them "clean" was to make sure they were no longer hard drives sou out came the angle grinder.


I have no worries about anyone being able to read the files now.


If it was me I'd buy a new HDD for cheapness and replace it.

This!

[northernladuk]

Hard drive eraser.... Does the job perfectly. Zero chance of data getting in to the wrong hands..

[quackhandle]

This (although no doubt some one will reply saying that data could still be extracted after doing this.)

qh

[oscarose]

Hard drive eraser.... Does the job perfectly. Zero chance of data getting in to the wrong hands..

+1

[Platypus]

Use ccleaner it will delete a lot of temp junk files that you probably don't know are there plus cookies, passwords, form data, and there's an option to secure clean hard drive free space too. Free download. Then you can donate the laptop complete with its hard drive and O/S installed.

CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download