Erase a hard drive

So you've decided to get rid of your old computer.  But what do you do about the hard drive?  You certainly don't want all of your pictures and personal data to wind up in the wrong hands .  And just deleting files or reformatting the hard drive isn't adequate (ComputerWorld Survey: 40% of hard drives bought on eBay hold personal, corporate data).  You could smash it with a hammer but if you're giving the computer to someone else, they will need a drive.

What you need is a way to make sure that the data on the hard drive is gone for good!

There are several good erasing utilties but the way we do it is with Darin's Boot and Nuke.

"Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction."

Get a copy of DBAN here and burn it onto a CD.  Boot your computer from the CD, enter "autonuke" (all lowercase) and wait - your hard drive will be completely erased.

If you have any problems or need a copy of the CD, click here to contact us.