How to clear a hard drive?

[BeNotAfraid]

My husband agreed to give our harddrive from our old laptop to his friend :rolleyes, so I need to know how to clear the hard drive. It has several years worth of financial info, journals, pictures, work, etc... I'm a bit annoyed since there is nothing wrong with the laptop except the monitor died. We have a desktop now and I could always hook it up to that monitor, but we never do because that defeats the purpose of a laptop. I wonder how much it would cost to get the monitor fixed...:thinking

Anyways, about the hard drive...
Thanks!!!!:)

[tjplaw]

Format the drive.
Formatting a Hard Drive (http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html)

[Hootmon]

I wonder how much it would cost to get the monitor fixed...:thinking
Depends on how old it is.

The monitor is one of the more expensive bits of a laptop. Replacing one can cost a significant percentage of what it would cost to just buy a new laptop.

[ghetto guy]

Get a hold of a program for formating hard drives (http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=format+hard+drive&licenseType=49&tag=dir.li) then put the drive into another computer and run the program on it.

[Tall Timbers]

My husband agreed to give our harddrive from our old laptop to his friend :rolleyes, so I need to know how to clear the hard drive. It has several years worth of financial info, journals, pictures, work, etc... I'm a bit annoyed since there is nothing wrong with the laptop except the monitor died. We have a desktop now and I could always hook it up to that monitor, but we never do because that defeats the purpose of a laptop. I wonder how much it would cost to get the monitor fixed...:thinking

Anyways, about the hard drive...
Thanks!!!!:)

You can find programs that will wipe data. Norton Utilities includes that as well as other companys. You should wipe the files you want to delete and "empty" space several times. That'll leave the OS intact for the new user. While the files can probably be retrieved still, it would take abilities that most of us don't have after the multiple-wiping has been done. A replacement monitor would probably end up costing more than the price of a significantly better notebook computer.

Rather than secure software to wipe your drive, it would make more sense to remove the hard drive, physically destroy it (I have a daughter that takes ours apart, then I destroy the platters). Let the new owner purchase a new hard drive.

[Hootmon]

Dont just 'wipe' it. Write over the whole thing with zeroes.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,22920-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html#

...physically destroy it.Or that.

[Tall Timbers]

Dont just 'wipe' it. Write over the whole thing with zeroes.

That's what wiping does (or so I think). It writes over the selected space with zeroes, or whatever digit(s) you choose, if the software offers a choice. That's why wiping doesn't really erase and if you have the equipment and knowledge or deep enough pockets, you might still be able to get to at least some of the data.

That said, I don't know enough to go any further into the hard to understand idea that when you write over something with something else, especially when you do it several times... how on earth can you uncover the covered data?

[BeNotAfraid]

Well, that's all he wants is the hard drive. So I can't destroy it :) He says he can do it, but I don't really trust him. Our whole life is on that hard drive :)

I guess he's building another laptop or something. I just bought a new desktop when the monitor on the laptop went out because I figured it would be cheaper.

Since I know nothing about putting that hard drive in another computer, and I don't want to spend any $$ on a program to wipe out something we are giving away, I guess my only choice is to have hubby tell the guy he can't have it...?

[CHC]

heres a free open source tool to wipe a hard drive,it has many options,you can overwrite it with 0's or encrypt it,lots of options

http://dban.sourceforge.net/


you can boot it from a usb flash drive,or burn it to a disc and boot it from that.

[Tall Timbers]

Well, that's all he wants is the hard drive. So I can't destroy it :) He says he can do it, but I don't really trust him. Our whole life is on that hard drive :)
I guess my only choice is to have hubby tell the guy he can't have it...?

Even if the person is your's or your husband's best friend in the whole wide world, you shouldn't hand over that hard drive unless you feel relatively certain that you've covered over (wiped) your files away.

If he just wants the hard drive you can plug the notebook into a working monitor, and boot from the operating system CD. Choose to reinstall windows (presuming you're using windows), and choose the format hard drive option. Let it do the slow format and that should be good enough. After it's formatted end the install since he's only after the hard drive....