Complete deletion of data on a hard drive

[Andy008]

Does anyone know how to totally eradicate data from a hard drive, by that I mean so that it is erased completely and irretrievably, and not just "hidden".

Thanks.

[alfgbt]

There are programes that claim to totally erase a drive to the point of non recoverable......! , but none as good as a 9lb ballpane hammer...

[ACtheTROLL]

absolutely right ... even then symantec have a rig that will mount what's left of a disk and extract data.
(costs an absolute fortune ... but it can be done)

which sort of answers your question ... the answer is no

but - for a non-system disc
http://www.heidi.ie/node/14

for your system disc
http://www.dban.org/download

they will prevent most "ordinary" people .... the question is are you worth the effort? ... most of us aren't

if you are ... there is always a way ...

[MrBounty]

Sounds like someone has been looking at something they shouldn't......

[peanut]

get a torch and melt the hard disk into a pool of molten liquid. let me see someone recover data from that.

[rojash]

I bet the terminator could do it

[fo3nix]

Eraser is good and free.

The 'heidi' link above in AC's amswer is this.

It will take a while to run though.

Anything above 7 passes should be good enough unless it's going to GCHQ or the NSA!

[what..the?]

Yeah I have like two towers at home and not being like IT clever I dont know what to do with them I cannot just bin them like the government or leave it on a train pmsl

[matt1e]

alfgbt has the best solution - 9ld hammer
but then throw it on a bonfire just to make sure

[wildwood]

Wouldn't a thorough format clean the drive?

[rojash]

wildwood, no it wouldn't there's technology available that can detect the residual magnetic alignment and recover the data. That's why there are programs available that write and erase random patterns repeatedly, in order to ensure there is no recoverable data.