How to Wipe a Hard Drive
Credit: Flickr
When you own a business, there’s a good chance that you’re going to have computers laying around. We all know that they aren’t going to last forever and when they are about to give up, you may find yourself selling them off on sites like eBay, or even just throwing them in the dumpster.
Regardless of what your case is, I’m going to give you some step by step instructions on how you can erase and wipe your hard drive clean. Again, if you want to sell it, or even start from scratch, these steps will erase most of your data 99% of the time.
Deleting just doesn’t do the trick
If you own a medical office, or a place where your data is confidential, you’re going to find when you delete a file and erase it from the recycling bin, people are still going to be able to recover it. This just isn’t going to do the trick.
How to delete your data 100%
The situation that we’re going to work with today is a process called, “Secure Erase.” Keep in mind that when you go this route, you’re not going to be able to recover your data at all, so you will want to make sure that you want to delete everything off your hard drive before you do so.
To get Secure Erase, you’re going to want to download the software here. Once you download it, you’re going to want to read the “read me” file and go from there. Make sure that you read it step by step, because one screw up isn’t going to make it work.
Why should I choose Secure Erase?
The reason that you’re going to want to choose a software package like this one is not only is it free, but it also is going to be able to meet government compliant standards when you want to delete confidential HIPPA files for example. It’s faster and has received rave reviews online.
Now, keep in mind that you should be more than a newbie when dealing with computers. If you’re unsure of what you’re doing, you may want to consult with a professional online to ensure that you’re doing the proper thing. Just because the data is gone on your computer won’t mean that your data isn’t there anymore.
The last thing that I want to mention is that if you’re just going to toss the computer, I wouldn’t go through this hassle. Instead, you will just want to destroy it. Pry the hard drive open and cut all disks, as well as shred them. This way, no one can gain access to them.
Also, if you’re going to sell, you may want to consider just taking the hard drive out and selling the machine without it.
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