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PC hardware: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data?
- 11/14/08 3:00 PM
donating hard drives...
by under-wood - 11/3/08 1:27 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I read most of the posts here, it seems that everyone has an idea on ''how to clean a hard drive'' but how many of you think about the information on CD or DVD that you throw away, as it is.
underwood you made me groan!! about CDs that I threw away!!
by Dumbpeni - 11/3/08 7:38 AM In reply to: donating hard drives... by under-woodI will use them as coasters and it will pile up ten foot high in my kitchen!
Darik's Boot and Nuke
by ChrisRM - 11/3/08 6:40 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Lee,
You could take a look at Dariks Boot and Nuke, its free and will run on most OS's. You can find it here www.dban.org or just search for "darik boot nuke" and you will find lots of info on it.
I have used the DOS version on a floppy and it is fairly simple to get to grips with. Pop in the diskette and reboot the PC! Of course only use it when you have saved everything from the disk you may want later.
Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal da
by r0berrtw - 11/3/08 12:08 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
"how I can thoroughly clean these drives out"
Depends on how paranoid you are and/or how sensitive the data is. The only certain way of ensuring that data cannot be retrieved is to physically destroy the disc platters - though you'd probably only want to go that far if there is seriously sensitive stuff on there - like classified or incriminating or the codes to your numbered Swiss bank account (if you have one!)
Otherwise - there are utilities that will 'securely' delete files - basically by ensuring that the files are overwritten with other data. Be aware though that with the right equipment it is still possible to retrieve 'overwritten' data, though for everyday users it's probably good enough. Alternatively a low-level format will probably be OK. Clearly you have to have the drives in a working computer to do this.
If the drives have things like credit card numbers or bank account numbers on them you might want to think about changing them before giving the drives away.
Donating Harddrives
by guywayne - 11/3/08 7:53 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you have info on your harddrive that will cost you money or legal trouble, do not donate it. I know that this seems harsh, but think of this- if your old drive is smaller than 40 gigabytes it is probably all but useless to most people or businesses in these days of huge OS's, programs and music/video/photo files. If it is more than 5 years old, it is likely to have a short life remaining and so it also will not be too valuable to a business or other recipient.
So, if your harddrive is old or small, the only people interested in it will likely be someone interested on what is on it.
If you are still interested in donating old drives, the best way to remove the old info is to download Dban and put it on a floppy. then restart the computer with the floppy in the drive. Make sure that the donation drive is in the computer! as dban will nuke everything on all the drives in the computer!
Seriously though, if you have sensitive info, you are better off smashing it up with a sledgehammer. If you don't have anything that you can't afford to lose, then donating is a good thing!
hard drives
by angler2--2008 - 11/15/08 8:50 PM In reply to: Donating Harddrives by guywayneAs i said before,hit it with a hammer....less complicated than anything else.
personal data
by dawn-ooo - 11/4/08 12:17 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
take a steel tumbler and poured some water and put the hard drives in to it.and boiled.this is the remedy for your old data and viruses.
How about putting your old drives inside your wall paritions
by Dumbpeni - 11/4/08 6:33 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Go to a hardware store and ask for a drywall saw ($5), a putty knife ($5) and a jar of white joint plaster $10... then cut out a small square hole in any of your walls where it is out of sight. drop your old drives in it and recover the hole with the cutout with the white joint plaster.. and forget it... Maybe someone will move in your house after you either move out or die of old age and discover your old drives and sell them at the antique shows..
donating hard drives
by 3116t - 11/5/08 6:08 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dear katy: i have some ideas for helping with your problem, but the most easy is: you should perform a backup of all data in this hard drives so you can totally secure your data is safe (this procees can be long but is recomended for your safety), then format the hard drive. I insist This process is long but safety. Already you must have a hard disk with enough capacity for storage the data of all hard disk and you may check later for the data of these hard drives.
If you don`t know how format a hard disk you can remove the data in the panel control section in windows, you can select add or remove programs, once you removed programs itīs no possible the recovery of them, so, take care.
3116.
Clear all info
by tedsworld - 11/5/08 5:51 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you have ablity to
just simply f/disk it
that will help you get
it all off.
I am afraid it wont
by ChrisRM - 11/6/08 1:59 AM In reply to: Clear all info by tedsworldFormat and/or FDisk will not destroy data on the disk. Data can still be recovered if somebody wants to and has a few of the right tools.
Well
by tedsworld - 11/6/08 1:17 PM In reply to: I am afraid it wont by ChrisRMThere is many way to get it off but
there is always a trail unless you
realy know what you are doing !
(JUST BURN THEM)Don't let them worry
you get the soft ware they claim to
get rid of all info that's what you
can do they may even have it on C/Net, Downloads?
Donating Hard drives, getting rid of personal dat
by justvic8 - 11/6/08 9:52 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've found a great free utility - Kill Disk http://www.killdisk.com/
how to get rid of your personal data
by malode007 - 11/7/08 7:41 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
the data in the hard drives can be cleaned and erased by either formatting the drives or deleting the documents.
Here we go again
by ChrisRM - 11/7/08 8:12 AM In reply to: how to get rid of your personal data by malode007A little, or no, knowledge is a dangerous thing!!!
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