clearing hard drive

[quofan]

I am buying a new computer and donating the old one to a friends child. As I do banking and other financial stuff online, how do I ensure that no information like this is left on the hard drive? Thanks for any help

[vehelpfulguy]

This has been discussed on here before, try searching.

It is VERY difficult to remove all traces because even a format of the hard drive and a re-install of Windows can still leave traces of your data.

But assuming the person you are giving it to is not a hacker, and does not work for the FBI, then the MINIMUM I would do is re-format the hard drive and re-install Windows.

I all you do is delete a few files then there will still be traces of what you have done left on the computer, which would not be difficult to find.

[Postdog]

Don't rely on just deleting. Use a programme like window washer

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tg=dl -2001&qt=window%20washer&tag=srch

I'm sure others may suggest other similar progs.

[jenstar]

Get a utility which overwrites random data over your old data. (Or you could replace the HD altogether.)

[badlad.biz]

Check online at the HDD's Manafactures site.
seagate for instance do a free program called something like Diskwizard. It will reformat your HDD and overwrite it with zero's.
Western Digital do similar.
Most online banking services run totally online, so apart from the the possible cookie with a password and downloaded balance, I don't think anyone will get far on logging into your account. Just change your password to be sure.

[fo3nix]

Use a program as the above say to securely erase data. I recommend eraser

[quofan]

Thanks for all your help, much appreciated