I just got a 3.06ghz p4 hyper-threading techology

and moving all my files over. Once i'm done, which program is best to use, to make sure that no one can recover the data from the old computer? Reformating doesn't remove the data, and reformating and reinstalling an os, will just write over a very small part of the harddrive.

Ironically, the best way to "clean" an old hard-drive is a rather old, but effective method.

1) Remove hard drive from the computer - make sure it is unplugged and you are grounded properly
2) Place the hard drive on your workbench, driveway, floor or other sturdy, non-porous solid surface
3) Place your safety goggles and face shield on. Also make sure that your extremeties are also well protected
4) Lift sledgehammer
5) Bring sledgehammer firmly down on drive case, smashing it
6) Repeat steps 4 & 5 as needed

Cleaning attempts could still be overcome by expect data recoverers, however, if the drive is destroyed it cannot be recovered.

Fdisk the drive to change the partition information and then format it.

And if you want, do what DLT said twice, just to ensure that the area is initialized twice. Just in case someone runs an undelete on it (there are some special tools for it that unformat drives).

No matter what you do to the drive old data can still be recovered no matter how many times it has been formatted. The only way to make sure no one gets your data is to destroy the platters as tackaberry says.
I know I worked in data recovery for a few years and you would be amazed at what can be done.

Use one of these.

If you're booting from another hard drive (ie. your old hd is just sitting there plugged in but doing nothing), there are some programs you can get that wipe data, rather than just "delete" it or format it. Like, it goes through and rewrites 0s, 1s, and other random patterns over the entire drive as many times as you want. I've never actually attempted to recover any data after using that, but they say they are foolproof even from hardware data recovery methods (like going in and looking at the magnetic remnants on the platter). Though Extrm Bob's post makes me wonder about that...

Anyway, one of the big ones is Norton WipeInfo, comes with SystemWorks. There are also several smaller ones you can find on Download.com, just search for something like "file wipe" and it ought to give you some good results for it.

---Jamin

Here is a recent article about data recovery.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-02-05-drive_x.htm

Thanks for the info, I'm checking out the programs and links right now

Theres only one harddrive in there and I can't really destroy it

Can you change the file type from fat32 to ntfs and back and scramble the bits and pieces?

I have a question about this.

The company my family owns is currently in a lawsuit with another company and it's parent company for theft of our information and corporate espionage, or whatever. Basically, the lady who started the sub company under the parent company was working for the parent company while at our company and emailed ALL documents to her home email as well as taking home sensitive paperwork and copying it.

Anyway, we sent the hard drive she used off to somewhere in St. Louis and even though she'd deleted everything they recovered EVERYTHING that had EVER been done on that computer. Enough to severely incriminate.

Anyway, the judge ordered both of those companies not to delete or get rid of any documents that they might have that belonged to us. Well, at the next hearing they revealed that they had been "scrubbing" their hard drives or something, and that a couple had "crashed" and they had to get rid of them. In ten days the judge will decide about the destruction of evidence, but what I'm wondering is this, is it really gone if they still have the hard drive? If so, we could still get it and send it off too.

I'm kind of thinking that no one in the courtroom has a clue about any of this stuff so if they say it's gone, then everyone is probably like oh, they deleted it, despite us sending off our own and getting that evidence.

So, is it still there, or did they do a good enough job?
It may not matter, because it basically sounds like the judge is going to rule in our favor on this and the whole thing will be over.

If not, then we must go on and drag this crap our for another year or so.

btw, congrats on the computer. I'm jealous.