How to wipe your hard drive

Computer hard drives usually store a lot of information, including personal data and sensitive business information. In the wrong hands, this data can be used to hurt you and or your business. If you want to completely wipe your hard drive before you part from it, there are ways in which you can do it. Read on how to clean your PC hard drive to prevent people from accessing your sensitive data.

Background information

How does the hard drive work? Hard drives keep an index of programs/files which you have installed in your PC scattered all over its space. Upon command to open the program, the active disk checks the program/file indexes and uses this to reconstruct the program. When you delete programs/erase files, the links between the index and the file is broken. This indicates your system that the file/program is no longer needed and that the hard drive space which the file occupied can be overwritten. Your
program/file, however, remains on the hard drive until it is overwritten. A specialist can still retrieve your deleted files. For example, if you delete your files when preparing to part with/sell your PC, the next PC owner can retrieve your files which will be still in the hard drive unless they were overwritten. So, how do you make sure that you protect data on your hard drive?

Reformat your hard drive

Reformat your hard drive to wipe your drive clean. Reformatting a hard drive wipes everything which is stored on the drive and prepares the drive for a new operating system. You’ll need to create a start-up disk to HD format a Windows PC. Restart the computer with the repair disc installed. At the disc repair prompt, type “Format: C” and answer "Yes" to the file deletion warning to start the process. After the disk has erased, remove the repair disc and restart and
re-install Windows, using your installation CD. The hard drive will be cleaned and it will be difficult for the average specialist to retrieve your data.

Overwrite the hard drive

To make retrieving more difficult even for the better specialists, use a Hard Drive Eraser software each time that you overwrite the disc. Programs such as Norton System's “Wipe Info” tool can repeatedly write gibberish on the hard drive and make it absolutely difficult to retrieve your drive data.

Destroy the hard drive

If you’re totally paranoid about protecting your data, the only absolutely way to wipe data from your hard drive and secure files is to physically destroy the drive. Unscrew the drive mounting screws, unplug the connecting cables and slide the drive out of its holder. Physically destroy the drive using a hammer or whichever way that you deem appropriate.