What is the best free way to securely wipe the hard drive of a PC (XP, I think) before re-selling it? Free means no purchase of software or hardware, if at all possible. If it helps, there are two laptops that need to be wiped, so one could wipe the other if there's some nifty way to do that. Any ideas would be much-appreciated.
posted by Dasein on Sep 26, 2009 - 8 answers

Tomorrow I'll list my ACER Aspire 3680 for sale on eBay. I want to be as sure as I can that there the lucky buyer has as little chance as possible of seeing passwords/pics/personal info. Normally, I would just format and do a clean install of XP. But I've moved house and my install disk is one of 19 packing cases stored 2500km away, so that option is out. I've listed what I've already done after the jump, but I'm hoping a more tech-savvy mefite might spot a hole in my erasure efforts. [more inside]
posted by t0astie on May 6, 2009 - 10 answers

I have an external hard drive that I'm sending back to the manufacturer due to an issue. I already have all of the data off of it, but (thankfully), a few days after I got the data, the thing is dead. The question: how do I erase all of the data off of it even if I can't boot it up? [more inside]
posted by SNWidget on Apr 6, 2009 - 10 answers

Looking for suggestions for a good vendor for a large dry erase board in the US. [more inside]
posted by 4ster on Aug 10, 2008 - 15 answers

How is data on my hard drive retrievable even after it is written over? [more inside]
posted by pixlboi on Jul 18, 2008 - 16 answers

What's the best way to erase my hard drive for resale if I don't have original OS reinstall CDs to work with? [more inside]
posted by rhoticity on Feb 29, 2008 - 13 answers

How to wipe a dead hard drive? After backing up my data to a recently purchased external drive, it promptly failed (and produced a horrible, burning electronics odor). As I'm still within the 14 day return policy, I shouldn't have any trouble returning it. However: I want to wipe all of my personal data from the drive first. How to do that with a drive that won't mount? [more inside]
posted by aladfar on Oct 29, 2007 - 16 answers

How do I clean the data off these old hard drives without using software or a mallet? [more inside]
posted by jamaro on Aug 10, 2007 - 14 answers

How many times should I zero the hard drive of a laptop I am going to sell? [more inside]
posted by bad grammar on Jan 8, 2007 - 18 answers

Where can I find dry-erase / whiteboard paint to put on my wall? Something like chalkboard paint.
posted by GernBlandston on Sep 9, 2005 - 9 answers

I am returning a laptop to my employer that I have used exclusively for the last two years. I have used it as a personal machine and need to erase all evidence of my (non-work) use. I have backed up everything that needs to transfer so a clean wipe and re-install would be ok. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jun 9, 2005 - 18 answers

Mac OSX Safari --Is there a script/action that I can enable to automatically erase my cache and history files at a certain time each day? While being fairly Mac savvy, I have no experience with writing scripts. I'm really looking for an easy solution, perhaps a piece of freeware?
posted by sharksandwich on Mar 26, 2004 - 6 answers