Ask HN: Selling laptop, how to wipe information?

#1

Post by deafcheese » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:13 PM UTC

I'm selling my laptop, and I'm wondering what everyone uses to wipe computers clean of personal data before passing it on.

Re: Ask HN: Selling laptop, how to wipe information?

#2

Post by Khao » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:22 PM UTC

I normally use a Linux boot disk to boot in live CD and then I format my disk and use an utility that writes random bits on the drive. I can't remember how this utility is called but I think a quick google search will give a lot of results.

Re: Ask HN: Selling laptop, how to wipe information?

#3

Post by blhack » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:23 PM UTC

You want this: http://www.dban.org/

By the way, this isn't really an appropriate question for HN.

Re: Ask HN: Selling laptop, how to wipe information?

#4

Post by BMarkmann » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:23 PM UTC

I've always been partial to DBAN:

http://www.dban.org/

Re: Ask HN: Selling laptop, how to wipe information?

#5

Post by deafcheese » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 3:15 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #3

You want this: http://www.dban.org/ By the way, this isn't really an appropriate question for HN.

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, I find the other part of your comment non-constructive. If you don't think that my question is inappropriate for HN, fine. But just writing it off without giving any justification or advice doesn't do anything to improve the community.