Re: To ensure clean hd before selling unit: Best practice?

riprap1951 wrote:
I'm planning to sell a laptop that's been in use for a couple of
years, & want to ensure that after the new owner gets the unit
there's zero chance of her/him coming across old/sensitive data.
Is a total re-format of the hard drive and a re-install of XP
sufficient? Or is it necessary to first use a drive-wipe utility
like DBan or Eraser?

Necessary? No - for most a repartition and reinstallation of the OS is
sufficient.
Some will destroy the hard drive - literally - and sell the rest.
Depends on your situation.

Want to feel better - seeing that you asked this question, you are paranoid
about it - then do a 14 level zero-write and then partition and format and
reinstall the OS and sell it. If they get the data off of it then, they
either have too much time, too much money, both OR you are an international
spy and should have opted for the "sledgehammer, melt drive to slag, make
into watch parts" option.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


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