HD Formatter?

[Peach]

I'm selling a PC, and I want to clean format it before I sell it. Whats the most secure way of doing this?

 

[phixt]

If you have Linux running on a box (knoppix will work too), the easiest way would be to do
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/drive bs=1M
drive=hda1, etc. Repeat a few times for security.

For Windows, check out DBAN (be careful) or Active@ KillDisk.

 

[Carnival Forces]

i recommend Ultimate Boot CD , it has reformatting tools on there.

just set the number of passes to like, 10, and you'll be fine. If you want to find out more, read Eraser's help documentation.

 

[Ice Czar]

I'll add a third vote for Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN)
which is on the Ultimate Boot CD

get started as soon as possible, it can take awhile to wipe a large drive with multiple patterns
(like all day) dont get crazy with how many patterns you use, but something over a single zero fill would be a good idea
the more patterns the higher the security, but unless its forensic recovery at the NSA labs more than 3 patterns is really overkill

 

[S1nF1xx]

I'll add a third vote for Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN)
which is on the Ultimate Boot CD

get started as soon as possible, it can take awhile to wipe a large drive with multiple patterns
(like all day) dont get crazy with how many patterns you use, but something over a single zero fill would be a good idea
the more patterns the higher the security, but unless its forensic recovery at the NSA labs more than 3 patterns is really overkill

Great little program. Love just letting it run all day. Yes, it is overkill, but it's fun!

Ice Czar, you're the last person I thought I'd hear say 'overkill' when it comes to paranoia.
j/k