What is the best way to delete personal info , eg credit card details, email log ins before selling a computer

format the hard drive several times to make sure that everything is completely gone

What is the best way to delete personal info , eg credit card details, email log ins before selling a computer
Read this article:


http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/f...





If you value your privacy then a shredder is the perfect tool to safely delete personal information, especially useful if you are going to resell your computer or any peripheral devices.





Most users delete files through the Recycle Bin and Windows merely removes the reference to these files which are easily recovered using freely available file recovery tools.





If you merely delete info through the Recycle Bin, maybe even carry out a format, there are plenty of recovery tools to get ALL of the information back.





Shredding using the Guttman algorithm of 35 passes (higher than the DoD Standard) and renders such information beyond recovery, you can also shred the free space on your hard drive which will also contain contents from the Recycle Bin.





The advantage of this system is that the OS stays intact.
Reply:The easiest way by far is to use DBAN. it does however erase EVERYTHING from your computer, even the OS (Usually Windows). It does this by formating the drive, and over writing it with Random byte sequences, and then formating again (repeats as many times as you want). If the person buying it doesn't mind providing their own OS, then it's the way to go.
Reply:Format the hard drive and reinstall the OS. For example, if you have XP, put your XP install CD in and go into the Recovery Console. Type "format C:" (without the quotes) and hit enter. It'll probably take around an hour, maybe more depending on how large of a hard drive you have. Once it's done type "exit" and hit enter and it'll restart. Then install XP again. If you want to really be safe, format the hard drive 7 times before reinstalling the OS. This takes a really long time to do but meets the US Department of Defense's standards for permanently erasing data.
Reply:If you have the the disk with the operating system on it ((e.g Windows XP))....when your computer is starting up choose boot from CD...and format your hardrive and put a new copy of windows on it..All the personal info will be gone unless you sell it to someone who is going to take your hardrive apart to obtain the info but i doubt that lol
Reply:I just wanted to say that formatting your hard drive isn't going to securely delete your personal info from it!





However, I wouldn't worry about it.





regards!
Reply:A DOD wipe that wipes out the whole hd with no possible way to get the info back.