active @ killdisk, Wiping HDD

[john1]

Hey guys, I am wanting to reformat a computer i have and sell it on craigs list.

The computer has a C drive and a E drive. The E drive i used for years to store my old business files.

Apparently a simple reformat doesn't really delete everything and this free program active @ killdisk is what you want to make the files un recoverable.

Anyone used this before?

Do you just erase the data on the selected drive, then pop in a windows XP or whatever disc and install a fresh copy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDSaeg7UHm4&feature=related

Thanks

 

[allamericantrade]

I remove all HDD before selling any computers. You wouldn't beleive how many people will still be interested in purchasing a computer even though it has no HDD. Personally haven't had any issues selling on EBAY in that condition!

 

[Locals Find!]

Just pop the drive and buy a new drive then add that into the price.

Then you don't have to concern yourself with wiping the drive and you know your private information is secure in your hands.

 

[choucove]

In a lot of ways yes, if you're wanting absolute security over all of your data, you can just pull out your old hard drive and be done with it. However, there's a lot of times this isn't always an option.

A customer just bought several new computers from us, and had previously been renting computers from another company. Especially being a law office, they wanted to be sure all the information was completely erased from the old computers before they returned them to the company to terminate their lease, but they couldn't just remote all the hard drives and send them back that way.

We just used the exact program that you are talking about here to do the disk erase just today on their computers. Active KillDisk is very simple and easy to use but also effective. We ended up doing a couple passes on each system but for most scenarios that's really just not necessary. Active KillDisk goes through and writes zeros over the entire drive to destroy fragments of data. So far, only highly equipped police and government agencies have the tools to really recover data from a drive that has been wiped properly. A simple zero wiping won't stop someone bound and determined (with the right skill and the right tools.) However, the likelihood that such a person will receive your computer after you have done a wipe?

 

[john1]

In a lot of ways yes, if you're wanting absolute security over all of your data, you can just pull out your old hard drive and be done with it. However, there's a lot of times this isn't always an option.

A customer just bought several new computers from us, and had previously been renting computers from another company. Especially being a law office, they wanted to be sure all the information was completely erased from the old computers before they returned them to the company to terminate their lease, but they couldn't just remote all the hard drives and send them back that way.

We just used the exact program that you are talking about here to do the disk erase just today on their computers. Active KillDisk is very simple and easy to use but also effective. We ended up doing a couple passes on each system but for most scenarios that's really just not necessary. Active KillDisk goes through and writes zeros over the entire drive to destroy fragments of data. So far, only highly equipped police and government agencies have the tools to really recover data from a drive that has been wiped properly. A simple zero wiping won't stop someone bound and determined (with the right skill and the right tools.) However, the likelihood that such a person will receive your computer after you have done a wipe?

Awesome, So just run the killdisk, then pop in the windows CD and install windows as normal?

 

[choucove]

Running the Active KillDisk will erase the entire drive so it will show as unformatted free space when you go to install Windows. Your most complicated stage is just going to be the actual installation of the OS, drivers, base software, etc. It can take a bit of time to do.

What version of Windows are you placing on the computer after you have it cleared off? Windows XP Home? Windows XP Professional? It brings up a big question about what type of hard drives you have in your system if you are doing something with Windows XP. Namely, if you have SATA hard drives, you need to be careful that either:
1) you have a Windows XP CD version that includes the SATA chipset or controller drivers so that it can recognize your hard drives to install the operating system or
2) you must download the necessary SATA drivers for your computer's controller or chipset and place it on a floppy so that you can load them during the initial startup of the Windows XP installation.

Of course, if you only have an IDE hard drive then there shouldn't be any issues initially with recognizing the hard drive, but when you switch to having SATA hard drives in Windows XP it can be difficult as you have to be careful about having proper drivers to get the OS installed. After you have Windows installed, you will need to download and install all additional drivers for your system (check the computer manufacturer's support site for where to download the latest drivers!) as well as any other Windows updates and base software etc.

 

[john1]

I am installing windows 7 pro again and have SATA hard drives.

I have installed many OS's and drivers over the years but never did a format like this, Just a normal reformat.

Since the computer has 2 drives, one with the OS and the other with backed up business files. I just format the backed up business files one with the killdisk, then burn the killdisk to a bootable cd and do the C drive and then pop in the windows disc and that's it?

Is anything special needed to do to use the back up hard drive again?

 

[choucove]

Once you install Windows 7 on the primary OS drive, you will need to go into Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and select Disk Manager. This should bring up a window to automatically initialize the backup second drive in the computer and create a new partition on it. That's all you need to do!