total loss

[ThinkOfTheChildren]

That's cool of you to do! I'm sure the recipients appreciate it very much

 

[monsterdog]

All you really need to do is boot from your operating system disk and remove the partitions on the hard drive. That's not the same as formatting a drive. A lot of data can be taken from a drive that is formatted if you use the right program. But if you remove the partitions from a drive and then restart the computer from your operating system disk again and create new partitions, you can format the drive and sell it with the computer or give it away or whatever. You don't have to physically destroy the drive.

If you remove the partitions, make new ones and "quick format" after that, most of the data you left on that drive can still be fished out with a little bit of hard work by a normal person, especially small files (like pictures, notes, etc) are vulnerable. Even a full format after that can, with the right tools, be mostly undone. And not just by the NSA, but your local police department or someone intent to spend a few hundred dollars having your hard drive restored by a professional company.

The only thing that will keep you relatively safe is overwriting each bit on your harddrive with other data (different at each pass, say random) at least 2-3 times, if you plan on handing your drive over to someone else intact.

The data is stored magnetically on the drive platters, even if you overwrite data, by mostly changing the magnetic signature of a particular part of the surface, it will not completely reverse polarity with just one pass. Think of magnetizing a piece of metal, it takes more than one pass with a magnet to make it consistent.

ThinkOfTheChildren may be paranoid, but he does a very good job of protecting his data.

 

[Tim-Gabz]

When I left my last co. I backed up onto the server, cut cds, one set for IT and one set for myself. I then cleaned off all my work and left only the original software before handing it over. It meant that the next person who got my machine had it clean and ready for use and my work in safe hands.