Need to sell netbook, erasing data completely?

pinnacle2009

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Feb 15, 2010
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So, short of the nail, axe, sledgehammer, weapon of choice, is there any other way to ensure data is lost? I need to get my netbook sold, but really wouldn't want the buyer to have access to any of my financial or other sensitive data. Also, I do not remember if there was a way of restoring the OS after cleaning the harddrive. I am guessing my best bet would be to contact the manufacturer?

Also, any tips on getting a computer ready to be sold?
 

cadder

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Nov 17, 2008
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You can find programs that will do a secure erase on the hard drive.

What I do is to erase everything I want to be erased, then fill the hard drive by copying other files repeatedly. I figure that this will write over anything I had stored. This might not completely pass recovery efforts by DOD but I think it would work for everyone else.
 

ricno

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Apr 5, 2010
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In Windows Vista and 7 actually the plain old command line Format utility supports multiple overwrites out of the box: link. It can be handy to know in situations where no third party tool is available.