Sanitizing a hard drive before selling laptop

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Purcy · #1 Post by **Purcy** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:12 pm

So, I want to sell my old T22 and wanted to know, first, is it vital to sanitize the hard drive before formatting and re-installing Windows XP? I have read about programs like "Wipe Drive" that wipe all records and files from the HD before you format it.

I would have to buy this program since I don't have one, might there be something that is freeware to do this?

#2 Post by **gator** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:28 pm

Patteye, if you don't want any data of yours remaining on the HDD before you sell your T22, you can try DBAN - very widely used for wiping data off hard disks securely:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Ofcourse it is not 'mandatory' to wipe the hard drive, you can simply load a windows install CD and just format the hard drive from the CD without installing XP.

Purcy · #3 Post by **Purcy** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:34 pm

oh Gator, thank you so much, this looks like it is freeware! I'll burn a copy tonight when I get home and use this. I really appreciate the quick reply.

#4 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:45 pm

If you want to stay "in the IBM-Family", you could also run their free tool
Secure Data Disposal
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... d=TVAN-SDD

andyP · #5 Post by **andyP** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:49 pm

Another free application is IBM's Secure Data Disposal, you can delete the hard drive to the level required by the defense dept. (or less if you wish).

edit. RBS was quicker

Purcy · #6 Post by **Purcy** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:15 pm

thank you guys, I already burned an ISO copy of Boot & Nuke (what an awesome name) that Gator suggested. It even downloads a copy of Express Burn which it uses to burn to the CD. The Express Burn looks like a useful tool too.

So now I have to Nuke, Format and Install Windows.

k2jsv · #7 Post by **k2jsv** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:14 pm

Or if you have the Hiren's Boot CD (available on Bit Torrent) you can use KillDisk as well.

#8 Post by **carbon_unit** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:20 am

Hirens CD contains illegal software. That is not an approved subject around here. Please do not promote it. We promote legal software in this forum.

sarbin · #9 Post by **sarbin** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:31 am

if it's a hitachi drive or a 'legacy' ibm drive, you could use DFT (Drive Fitness Tool), which is available on the hitachi global storage web site, to do a low level format. multiple passes might approach DoD specs.

agarza · #10 Post by **agarza** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:23 pm

So what's the difference between DFT & Secure Data Disposable?
Generally writting 0's & 1's to the drive would make it 'almost' safe to make a no recovery, also if you install Windows and other software it would be even harder to recover old data right

#11 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:58 am

DFT might approach DoD specs.
SDD does meet DoD specs.

Sanitizing a hard drive before selling laptop

Sanitizing a hard drive before selling laptop

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