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New member Username: RancherladyPost Number: 4 Registered: Oct-10 | Hi, I'm getting ready to donate some older towers and I've been told if I recycle I can drive a nail through the hard drives but if I donate to Goodwill how do I deal with my personal information on the hard drives? Thanks! |
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Platinum Member Username: PlymouthCanada Post Number: 15100 Registered: Jan-08 | rancherlady There is some software to completely erase the Hard drive which overwrite many time on the HD. Do a search on Cnet |
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Platinum Member Username: Insearchofbass2 hifonics 2607s, 2dcSounds12xls SPL\idmax12SQ Post Number: 15563 Registered: Jun-04 | you would have to reinstall the operating system if you do that |
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Platinum Member Username: Insearchofbass2 hifonics 2607s, 2dcSounds12xls SPL\idmax12SQ Post Number: 15628 Registered: Jun-04 | did you fix the pcs yet? |
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Gold Member Username: DoreenakadjCanada Post Number: 4882 Registered: Dec-06 | rancherlady I use 2 different ones that work great 1. Active kill-disk ( free or pro) http://www.killdisk.com/ or 2. wipe drive http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php If you want the pro version for either one please let me know and I can send you a link to download it. Both are good . The free versions will not wipe them out completely. If someone was to use a recovering data software they can still get your data back . But using the Pro versions they can't. |
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Gold Member Username: DoreenakadjCanada Post Number: 4883 Registered: Dec-06 | Sean yes you will have to reinstall the OS system after wiping out any hard drive. |
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New member Username: RancherladyPost Number: 5 Registered: Oct-10 | Haven't done anything yet. I put it off long enough so they're all filthy with dust and crawly things so I have to close my eyes and get to it. Not looking forward to hooking them up. So I should follow the links you gave me, Doreen? And if I donate them I'll have to attach a note explaining the need to reinstall the OS system, right, Plymouth and Sean? Thanks for the info, everyone. I'll have to drag out the dustrag. |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 1703 Registered: Oct-07 | http://www.dban.org/ link is to 'boot and nuke' which has many options, among them a mil-spec version which reads / writes to each sector many times. FREE. Make a copy of the download on CD. Install in CD drive and restart your computer. Follow prompts. Short of physically destroying the drive, this is about as good as you can do. This takes a while, depending on the size of the drive. DO NOT format, since all the stuff is still on the disk, just marked as 'available' space. Any hacker / police / intel folks can read those discs like you read the sunday paper. |
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Platinum Member Username: Insearchofbass2 hifonics 2607s, 2dcSounds12xls SPL\idmax12SQ Post Number: 15999 Registered: Jun-04 | there you go |