Deleting infromation from HDD

H

Hulk

Supreme [H]ardness
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Nov 4, 2005
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I am selling a laptop and desktop and need to delete all the personal information on there. What is the easiest way to do this? I don't have the Windows CDs so I can't just reinstall windows. Thanks.
 
add it as a second hard drive to another computer and run a secure erase program on it. regular formating does nothing to make your data unrecoverable. either use "eraser" "dban" "bootnuke" or another program. bootnuke is good if you dont have another computer to use, as you boot from the CD and it erases the hard drive from there. this can not be done from within windows (or anything running from the drive).
 
Thanks for the info.

Will bootnuke also delete Windows?
 
Download linux and burn to a bootCD or USB stick (unetbootin). Boot the CD. Erase HD with (will take hours):
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=4096

There are also special boot CD .iso files you can download on the internet that do similar things. Search around for them.
 
Hulk said:
Thanks for the info.

Will bootnuke also delete Windows?
Click to expand...

I believe eraser will government wipe files and slack space provided you know all the files you want to be erased. Although I have never used it.

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

Read the documentation clearly to verify that it is erasing individual files and not the whole disk.
 
drescherjm said:
Again that would wipe out the windows install which the OP did not want.
Click to expand...

Sorry, missed that detail. There's a command called sfill on linux that will do this. First, you'll have to mount the Windows partition. Ubuntu LiveCD will do this with a simple click in the "Places" menu at the desktop.
 
There's no good way to clean out only the personal data. Programs (on any OS) leave all sorts of files all over the place. The only safe route is to erase the drive and reinstall the OS. If your computer has an OEM license key then get an OEM disc and reinstall. You can change the key to the one on the machine and reactivate it.
 
Delete all of your personal files to create as much free space as possible (leaving only the OS) and then use something like this.
 
I was going to say that some bits may be left over in the MFT and CCleaner mentioned that this was a limitation. I wonder if eraser would nuke the bits in the MFT.

Edit: Eraser wipes files in the MFT.

http://bbs.heidi.ie/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5735

BTW, I believe with eraser its best you do not delete the files first.
 
Oh, I forgot about CCleaner. This will erase MFT and free space too. Much easier option: just install, set secure wipe, check box Wipe Free Space, and run. +1
 
there is no way to simply "clean" a windows installation of personal information without reinstalling windows. i would never sell a laptop without a complete hard drive wipe first. unless you reformat the entire drive, assume there is still personal information left. wether or not you care is up to you, depends on who you are selling it to i suppose.
 
Yes, the above posters are correct. Various references to file size and name remain in log files. The file contents will be gone after an erase though (in case of deleted files after a free space erase). In some cases, when the MFT is not "erased" even more clues remain.
 
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