Giving an old computer to a charity, friend, or family member is a great and thoughtful idea. Prior to any such donation however it becomes very important to clean the hard drive of any data that could be used by a thief to steal a person’s identity or access important bank accounts. Erasing the hard drive with a special software tool is the only real way, short of physically destroying the hard drive, to ensure that all personal data is gone for good.
Erasing A Hard Drive Requires More Than Just Emptying The Trash
Many computer users incorrectly assume that dragging files into the trash or recycle bin and then emptying it destroys the files for good. In truth, all of the data in those deleted files is still present on the hard drive until it is overwritten by new data. Using an undelete utility anyone can recover deleted files off of a hard drive unless additional steps are taken to completely erase the data. Likewise, simply formatting a hard drive does not destroy the data contained on it. Until the data is overwritten in some way it is always possible to get the information back.
A Truly Clean Hard Drive Requires Special Erasing Software
Software programs for erasing hard drives can be found from many different vendors. In some cases erasing programs are included with larger utility suites but for those that only need to erase a hard drive the best utilities are also free to download.
- Eraser- A simple, easy to use program that adds additional options to the recycle bin right click menu. Instead of emptying the trash a user can truly erase the data by overwriting it dozens of times with random characters. This type of erasing process lives up to US Department of Defense standards for information security. Essentially, there is no way to get the data back once it has been erased with this program.
- Boot and Nuke- For those that want to completely clean a hard drive, erasing everything on it including the operating system, this program installs onto a bootable floppy disc. When the computer is turned on the program on the floppy goes through the same overwriting process that Eraser does, but it does it to absolutely every file on the entire hard drive. When it is done the hard drive is a blank slate, ready to have a fresh copy of an operating system installed on it.
Clean hard drives are secure hard drives. Erasing a hard drive’s data is a quick and easy process that adds a sense of security and comfort when dealing with sensitive personal data.
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