I have an old computer I would like to donate but I am unsure if just giving it to a charitable organization is trustworthy. What about all my private info. on the computer?
2006-12-27 00:55:59 · 11 answers · asked by spidertiger440 6 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Format the hard drive.
2006-12-27 00:56:58 · answer #1 · answered by The Psycho 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
There are several ways to protect personal information on a used computer.
1) Format the hard drive. This will "delete" all of the information on the hard drive. Doing this will prevent most casual computer users from stumbling across any information that you don't want them to have. This will not protect any information from people that want information and know what they are doing.
2) Use a disk wiping utility. There are several out there that wipe your hard drive to varying degrees. Some cost money, some are free. The best free one in my opinion is Darik's Boot and Nuke. You can select from several different wiping algorithms, and decide the number of passes you would like to run. You can create a bootable floppy disk, a bootable CD, or a bootable DVD to run the application from. If you use 3 or more passes your data is very safe. If you use 7 or more passes it meets department of defense and PCI (Payment card industries) requirements for data protection. It can be found at:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
3) The simplest and safest method to protect your data would simply be to remove your hard drive. Open it up and bend and scratch the platters. Once the physical hard drive platters are damaged, recycle the hard drive.
2006-12-27 01:15:11 · answer #2 · answered by Mike K 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
formatting the hard drive will not secure anything. Not saying the person you give the hard drive to will try to scam you and get your information off the disc. But when you delete or format your hard drive there is still passes on the disc that are not cleaned, but wait to be overwritten in the future. If you can find "windows washer" that will run a 15-32 pass clean of your hard drive.
2006-12-27 00:59:16 · answer #3 · answered by keith s 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All depends who will be getting the computer.
Even if you formate the hard drive, you can still get data back off it. But you realy gotu know what your doing and have the right tools and programs to do it.
But if it is going to a family or something i think a format would be ok. They probly wont try and get any thing off it. And even if they tried they probly couldent. lol.
2006-12-27 00:59:26 · answer #4 · answered by natedog8989 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As others have mentioned, you must do a complete wipe of the hard drive using a scrubber. There's an open-source one called "Darik's Boot and Nuke" available here:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
The page also lists other software that does the same thing as well as how-to's.
2006-12-27 01:09:26 · answer #5 · answered by Chris S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
best to format the drive.
Have a look here as they have some useful info about getting rid of old computers and files etc.
2006-12-27 01:03:07 · answer #6 · answered by sugarplum9903 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have to do a "military wipe" of the hard drive before you donate it. There are free utilities that do this on
www.majorgeeks.com
2006-12-27 00:58:22 · answer #7 · answered by Sir J 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Format the hard drive, uninstall the hard drive, remove the hard drive, destroy the hard drive,get a new hard drive or let them buy a new hard drive. Thats the best way I can tell you.
2006-12-27 01:04:44 · answer #8 · answered by Phil 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they sell programs that will wipe your computer clean, they're rather cheap and you can get them at office stores like staples and office max
2006-12-27 01:04:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's no guarantees. I would format it to factory settings first. That way everything is erased.
2006-12-27 01:00:49 · answer #10 · answered by Jeremy Medlock 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋