How to Wipe a Hard Drive Clean

I had to donate a computer to a church, so I formatted the hard drive. I thought my data was totally erased. After the donation, I got a call from the church informing me that somebody had recovered my email contacts and IDs. I was in for a rude shock. I panicked, but since I knew those people at the church, they pacified me and ensured that they will erase the data completely. Thank heavens, they were good people from the church. I shudder to think what would have happened if my data was accessed by some wrong individual.

This was the observation of a person who understood the repercussions of cleaning a hard drive the easy way. But you may not be as lucky as him, if you sell your computer in a yard sale or donate it to a needy person or some school or simply sell it online. Your hard drive may end up in the wrong hands, and if you had thought that your important credit card or banking numbers were deleted, that may not be the case, and you may be facing some harsh consequences. Some other reasons for wiping the hard drive may include your computer's low performance or virus-infection. If you are not sure whether the data you have deleted is actually deleted from the hard drive, here are some methods to clean your hard drive.

Problems with Shift+Delete or Formatting

Even if you delete the data from your hard drive and then go on to empty the recycle bin or simply use the shift+delete command, your data is not wiped out. Deleting the data from the hard drive merely deletes the reference or shortcuts to the data, making it invisible, without actually erasing it. Any good data-recovery software can make one gain access to the data in seconds. While formatting a hard drive can be safe, especially if you do a proper format instead of a quick format, but it still isn't a foolproof method to ensure non-recovery of your data. Formatting deletes the data-entry in the File Allocation Table (FAT), but again, a good computer professional can recover it with fair ease. And then, if some important information is leaked, Lord save you! So, to ensure safety of your personal information, let me help you with some tips on how to completely erase a hard drive.

How to Wipe Clean a Hard Drive

Reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system (OS) can be a safe option. Obviously, you cannot completely wipe a hard drive while you boot the operating system with it. You will need some floppy boot disk or CD to install the operating system, or nowadays, even some bootable USB sticks are available. So, primarily, what you need to do is overwrite the data. This is the simplest way to keep people away from your old files. However, there is a rider even here. There are specialized software available to reclaim the data even after re-installation of the OS. Going further, there are various software applications available, which help in disk wiping. They overwrite the data with zeros and ones alongside overwriting the free space as well, with several passes. Software like Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN) and KillDisk are free and efficiently wipe off all the data with the process of overwriting. Even if you search in Google for such software, you will get plenty of free ones. You should run these software at least thrice for effective cleaning through overwriting.

If you are someone from the business world, then hard drive cleaning has assumed a new significance for you, given the new government regulations in place. If you fail to erase the customer or clients' information, it can result in lawsuits and hefty fines. To avoid going that path, you should use extremely reliable disk cleaning software, which you have to purchase, like WipeDrive 5.0, costing about $20 and having support for all PC and Mac computers. It permanently wipes all hard drive information including formats and partitions, and also wipes all the external hard drives, thumb drives, memory cards and iPods. The improved WipeDrive 5.0 Pro version costs around $40 and provides the benefits of simultaneous wiping of up to 12 hard drives, and saves you the effort of reinstalling the operating system. Overall, DBAN and WipeDrive are the most widely used hard drive cleaning software.

Also, degaussing is a technique used for destructing the data, subjecting the hard drive to a strong magnetic field. But this can permanently damage your hard drive. Of course, if you are very apprehensive of the data in the drive and want to take zero risk, a hammer is the way to go for complete destruction.

Before proceeding to wipe your hard drive, make sure you do not want any of the information for future use. If at all, anything is needed, take the backup of that data on an external hard drive or CD. Also, if you are going to clean the computer hard drive and start over again, make sure you have the installation CDs of your anti-virus, printer or any other important application. Nowadays, hard drives have become as personal as our toothbrushes (pun intended). So, it is absolutely vital that nobody gets access to our personal data as it can be embarrassing or simply cause huge monetary loss afterward. Without a doubt, a purchased drive cleaning software can ensure effective wiping. So, I hope you take my recommendations on cleaning your hard drive, as some money spent now will secure you against any future loss.