I'm selling my 5 year old 'Seagate' 20GB hard disk.?

Question

If i 'shift+del' all data, will the buyer still B able 2 recover it. I have vital data stored that i'll be erasing. i 'have' 2 sell it, how do i make sure that the buyer doesn't recover it thru any 'data recovery software'?
my vendor says he'll erase it and format it, how do i make sure that he has erased it forever?

Answer 1

before you sell it fill it up with twenty gb of rubbish like videos and music

defrag it then format it and do it again , then fdisk it and format it

i defy you to get any usable data after that (as in your personal data) or fdisk and format then fdisk and format

Answer 2

Dear,

There is always a risk of data recovery. With proffesional softwares you can recover even the formatted data. Because when you format or shift delete the data only the pointer of data or File allocation table is altered. You have to apply special softwares to completely erase the memory.

You can earn a good money if you go to a reseller dealing with refurbished Desktops. Bacause 20GB Laptop and desktop hardisks are difficult to find. Even in international market there is big shortage of 40GB HDD.

Answer 3

I suppose you are an Indian, thats why you have mentioned Rupees 800. Hey I am giving You the easiest way to make ur data unrecoverable. I expect that u r using windows. First of all shift+ del the confidential data. Then u run the Disk Defragmenter utility from Start>Programs>Acessories>System Tools.

Thats it, this will make the data unrecoverable.

My personal mail is [e-mail]

"Lagta hai ki apka kaam ban jayega- JAI HIND"

Answer 4

http://www.oo-software.com/en/index.html



If I did it my self I would use a program such as O and O Softwares O and O SafeErase V2 or one of their versions of O and O Defrag where the software has the ability to write 1's or 0's all empty space on the drive, and you can make the selection to use Department of Defence data erasure.



The program is so good I sent a friend to take a disk to the local crime lab, he looked for any files he could pull up and got the version of Windows we had used and that was about it.

Answer 5

Why sell it it's not worth more the 10 buck's and why not keep it install it on to your new computer for Music storage etc.

Then format it again yourself if you worried it is easy just right click it and select format another trick is to fill the disc up with lots of Video's,Music and useless files then format it so everthing is written over but best fdisc then format fill it up and do it again nothing worthwile be left.

Take care!!

Answer 6

I would never sell a hard drive. Your safest bet is to take it apart like I do and destroy the platters. A screw driver and some vigarous scratching should do it! A 20gb hard drive isn't going to be worth much anyway so it's not worth the risk. Also, do you really trust someone who says he will delete everything for you?!

Answer 7

if u desparately need that 800 bugs here is the way out. format ur hard disk. create a general file with some dummy letters. now create a batch file that keeps on copying this file to disk till all the space on disk is exhausted. now reformat the hdd and sell it.

Answer 8

If you are really concerned about the security of the data use a program like this



http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Answer 9

To be plain, simple and to the point you have to format the disk or run fdisk.



start up booting from the operation system cd, enter the setup.

new install, and instead of creatng a partition, del all the partitions and then format or you can use fdisk.

Answer 10

hi

[ Windows system [(fat16 , 32) tested ]

Delete all the partition

use FDISK command & then Delete All The Partition

then

Create a new partition

then execute

C:\format C: //full format not quick

that make u 100% sure



thanks for ur question

keep asking........!

http://success.275mb.com/

Answer 11

Make sure a low-level format is done. This should be enough unless some extremely major, and expensive forensics work is done.

Answer 12

it will be dont worry but u should format it on ur own though its not hard go to ur setup screen and choose format and it will take a few minutes but everything will be gone for good

Answer 13

use one of the write to 0 programs on it then re format ,that will get rid of all info.and you can do it your self. the programs are free all over the net.

Answer 14

Do not sell if those data still valuable mote than the HDD,

Answer 15

When you are fully formatted it, the data can't be recover.

Answer 16

who would buy a 5 yr old hdd? put under a truck and smash it, thats the only way.

Answer 17

gt yur hdd formatted

Answer 18

its only 20 gigs. if youre so worried about whats on it, throw it in the bin, its only worth ten quid...

Answer 19

if you use linux you could mount it as a secondary and do a dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hdb

Answer 20

if your ventor says he'll erase your harddrive there's no reason for him not to, other wise if you don't trust do it yourself. reformat it yourself.

Answer 21

www.stompsoft.com/drivewasher.html