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Division of IT: Security
Best Practices: Data Disposal
It's very important that you dispose of your computer safely. This means that you must ensure that all the data and information on the computer is removed so that the next owner can't see your personal or sensitive information. This procedure is sometimes referred to as "sanitizing" your hard drive. Essentially, you need to run a specialized program to wipe all the information from your computer's memory.
When you use the "delete" command or drag items to the "Trash" folder, they are not completely gone from your computer's memory. The data is still stored on your computer's hard disk. You should note that there are many programs available that a hacker could run to restore data that has been deleted in this manner.
The easiest and most secure way to remove the data is to use a "wiping" program that not only deletes the data, but also overwrites each sector of your hard drive multiple times. This process can take a long time - maybe even hours, depending on the speed of your computer. However, it is a much more secure way to destroy your hard drive's data and ensure that your personal information won't be obtained by another user.
You'll need two things to successfully sanitize your computer's hard drive. First, you need a software program to overwrite your existing data. Some tools you can use are:
You will also need a CD or USB key to start up the computer and run the tool so that you can sanitize the whole drive.
Make sure that the tool you use has a feature to wipe the entire drive, not just empty space. This is the only way to make sure that all of your personal files and settings are removed.
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