Reformatting a Hard Disk

[Moby]

Hi Guys,

Will reformatting my hard disk fully remove all of my details from it?

Maybe a silly question, but I want to be 110% sure before I sell I laptop that's seen my credit cards etc.

Cheers,


Alan

 

[Munson]

Will reformatting my hard disk fully remove all of my details from it?

Yes, although not all of it will necessarily be erased. Someone with the means could probably recover some data.

 

[zack40]

yep ,full format and reinstall windows ..

 

[DrR]

Nope, only sure way is to buy a new hard drive.

 

[Rick]

There are disk recovery tools that can get data off a formatted hard drive. If you're selling the laptop then I'd suggest fitting a new drive if its that important to you.

 

[SimonV6]

There are disk recovery tools that can get data off a formatted hard drive. If you're selling the laptop then I'd suggest fitting a new drive if its that important to you.

Yeah agree....

My mate did a full format on his mates (wrong) hard drive and still manged to get back 98% of all that was on that Hard drive with a Data retriveal program

Simon

 

[Moby]

It is Rick - it's seen all my financials etc - would want those details getting into the wrong hands.

Cheers Guys.

 

[DrR]

Defo get a new hard drive then, and smash the living crap into the old one.

 

[Daz]

http://dban.sf.net/

 

[Moby]

Cheers Daz - have you tried it?

 

[Daz]

Yep.
I used to use another one, which was OK, but didn't do the really good wiping without paying for the pro version - dban does it for free.

 

[BenWall]

put a really stronf electro magnet over the old one, that will wipe it. The data will allways be there.

 

[Andi-B]

Norton have Wipe info built into their Utilities program, does the business as you can tell it to "government wipe" the drive... I did it once and couldn't recover nothing from it..

150Gb p**n . . . . GONE!!

Gutted