Disposing of old PC - Advice on clearing HD Needed

stluke023

has any one got gary glitters e-mail address

owey

Try a nail.

john_kent

I destroy disks ina bucket of Salty water. I have had one in there for a year. Just to see how corroded it gets. Alternatively , my locla tip has crushers and I fgormat drive. Attack with hammer (after talking to creditors) and the dump up there.

Little_John

If the data on there is so important then someone will be able to get it off no matter how many times you format it or use software to wipe the disk, the only way is to either keep the drive yourself or destroy the platters of the drive even that isnt a 100% sure way of ensuring that someone wont be able to get anything off it. if thay are prepared to invest alot of money they can get the data back.

If all your wanting to do is delete your !!!!!! collection and personall emails just trash the disk get screw driver and hammer it through the drive a few times it should put the average joe off even trying to get the stuff off there.

monkeyspanner

Many thanks for all your replies including the ones from:
Builders
Electricians
Firemen or should it be Fire Officer these days
Pyromaniacs
and Carpenters :beer:

For people with only one thing on their minds Gary can be reached at gary.g@saigon.hilton.com :eek:

I was actually more concerned about preventing identity theft and getting your opinions as to whether the Paragon Disc Wiper was any good.

Thanks all.

albertross_2

7 wipes with random data is the normal standard, but 1 wipe with zero's should be ok.

This freebie can do it.

http://www.cbltech.com/data-shredder.html?id=3

rockykabir

microwave for a few mins*



*don't do it if you want to risk damaging your microwave!!

John_LG

Most of the suggestions above are sensible. The general guide lines are to do three wipes to be 'sure', but there is no definite way, bar distruction (which is very satisfying!)!
My advise for your peace of mind, would be to try and recover the data using a very useful program called pc inspector file recovery. Do a google search / download.com - and try to recover data from your drive. If you can't recover, then you should be a little bit more happy, in your own mind.
The file inspector is also very handy for those little 'whoops' moments, when you delete things from your desktop/memory stick/my docs etc.
Good luck.