How should I erase my hard drive before I give it away?

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I believe those are roughly equivalent to the multiple-format option mentioned in the article.

DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) is a free, easy to use tool, that performs hard drive wipes up to DoD (Department of Defense) specifications. It's similar to the technique used to destroy data on computers that store secret defense information. Just run the boot disk builder utility, stick the disk in the drive of the computer in question, reboot and follow the on screen instructions. You can download it here ... dban.sourceforge.net

for wiping your hard drive data... you can Stellar Wipe - An advanced safe data eraser.
Download the software from here

http://www.stellarinfo.com/file-eraser.htm

It's free for 30 days...

Give a try.. it is a wonderful software

Here's some advice on using geek squad if you're computer literate enough to be posting and reading comments on this web site. Don't. And as for their use of "clean rooms", most of their techs don't even bother with discharging electricity.

I read your comment about a large magnet not being effective at erasing a hard drive. I have one of those "lift an outboard motor" magnets. I was hoping it would erase a notebook drive I have to return to H.P. because it failed. Because it had failed I was unable to use a program to erase it. I obviously can't damage it because they want it back (or I pay for a new one - even though the in-warranty replacement they sent was apparently used (scratched). I have a lot of pesonnal info on it so I'll try the magnet anyway - and hope for the best.
Thank you,

what is about the DD command, so far as i know this is safe as well, isn't it ?

e.q.
dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda

With regards to using magnets to erase your files. Even if you have a powerful degausser, if you want to give the drive away or have it usable afterwards, don't use a magnet. The manufacturer stores important data on the disk for the drive itself to function. Erasing that will render the drive unusable.

Also, it takes a strong magnetic field inside the drive to actually erase the data on the disk. Even magnets that you or I consider very strong typically don't project the magnetic field strongly enough far away from it's surface. And by far away, I mean about half an inch.

Empty your trash bin and the space will then show up on your pie chart. When you delete something, it doesn't free up your space until you empty the recycle bin.

In MS DOS mode i typed in FORMAT/U and it says "required prameter missing-" what now?

Gina, the parameter missing is the drive letter.

Example: format c: /u

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