Erasing Personal Information from a Shared Computer

Go to Worldstart.com and check their tip archives. They just covered that subject in today's e-newsletter. Good luck, and God bless you.

www.asktcl.com is where you can download a free erase program. You can erase your whole harddrive with this program. Once you erase there is no turning back!! Make sure this is what you want to do. This website is a lady who gives computer advice and tips for happy computering. This is a trust worthy site.

you don't have to destroy the actual computer... just take out the hard drive and destroy that. a new hard drive can always be put back in

Even though it sounds very wasteful, the best thing to do with a computer you don't want anymore is to take a sledgehammer to it. Even if you "wash" it and give to someone you trust, you can't control what THEY do with it down the road. I'm sure anyone who has ever experienced identity theft would gladly have paid a few hundred dollars (or whatever an old computer might be worth) to prevent the identity theft. After you've destroyed the computer ask your local public works department how to dispose of it properly. I know this is hard for people like us who don't even want to waste a soda tab, but sometimes safety needs to outweigh thrift.

You could always FORMAT drive C with the click of a few buttons..... Now that would erase EVERYTHING (except the operating system, I believe) & the new owners would have to install all their own programs, so may be too drastic for what you want. Just google "reformat Hard Drive" to get the instructions if you want to,

or click this link to read CNET'S ADVICE: http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6130_10 ... mID=7&threadID=66200&start=0

OR Microsoft's advice:http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusin ... rd_drive_before_dumping_your_pc.mspx

Otherwise, that ERASER program someone previously suggested sounds good & efficient!

I just recently came across this info.

InfoAve Questions and Answers
Cloudeight Information Avenue
John Asks About Erasing Data From His Hard Drive

There are a lot of different software programs that claim they can erase files and data from the hard drive so that they cannot be recovered by anyone. Have you ever used any of these programs and if so which ones would you recommend? I have been a subscriber of your newsletter for a long time and have used several of the programs you have recommended and have been completely satisfied with them. Thank you for being out there and providing such accurate and informative information through your newsletters. John
Our Answer
There is one free program which works well and it is one which have used for many years. It's called "Eraser" and there is nothing simpler to use. You can download "Eraser" free (no spyware or adware of course) by visiting this Web site.

A couple of things you should know: When you delete a file from Windows, it is not really deleted. Deleting a file simply frees up the space that the file occupied so that space can be used for other things. In other words, deleting a four-megabyte file simple tells Windows that the four-megabytes of space once occupied by that file is now available for use. The file still exists and can be recovered. You can never erase a file, you can, however render it virtually unrecoverable by overwriting it many times with data. This is how Eraser works. It overwrites the space occupied by the deleted file many times with random characters, effectively rendering the deleted file unrecoverable. The more times the freed space is over-written the less likely it is that the file you deleted could ever be recovered.
The FBI and other investigative agencies have access to very powerful software recovery programs. The can extract data even from damaged hard drives. Such software as used by these types of investigative agencies is available to anyone. The reason why most law-abiding citizens would want to thoroughly erase data is to prevent the recovery of passwords, social security numbers and credit card information from their hard drives. Anything you type or do in Windows leaves a trail somewhere. It's best to erase all sensitive information before selling your computer. Simply deleting the files is not good enough.