What's the best way to "wipe clean" the hardrive and all data from my computer? ?

Question

I don't veiw anything illegal but my girlfriend is moving in so I want to permanently erase all trace of sites I've visited. What's the best program or proceedure to accomplish this task?

Answer 1

If you want to entirely wipe out the hard drive and reinstall the operating system and all the programs on it then I suggest using DBAN (do a google search for it). Its a free wiping program which uses Dept. of Defense standards to wipe you're drive basically writing 0s and 1s to the drive.

If you just want to erase you're internet seaching and recently viewed documents and such do a search for ccleaner. Its free.

Answer 2

You could format the whole thing.

Answer 3

You could delete as much as you can find manually in an hour or so if you want. Start with the usual - Tools, Internet Options, Clear History and Delete Cookies and Delete Files including the offline content.  Then you can check - look in Start, My Computer - then select your folder named yourname's Documents. (You might want to view hidden files - Tools, Folder Options, View).  Check the folders showing for files you want to and can safely delete.  Then go back to C: and open C:, open Documents and Settings, you should have a folder there as well.  Look in that and its sub folders for the files you want to erase.  If you use Ccleaner that will delete all temporary files for you and also other rubbish.

Remember to empty your recycle bin AFTER you have deleted all your files.

Answer 4

Hi,

Heres a simple and free software which can clean your temp files, internet history, download history, run history, mru, etc. This should do to clean all traces. If you want to clear even user files  scattered among drives and folders,  have it formatted. Check for guides for formatting and reinstallation. make sure you have drivers and necessary programs to get it reinstalled.

Try the link below to download cleanup, its free and a good s/w.

http://www.stevengould.org/index.php?opt...

Answer 5

reboot you cp with a cd

Answer 6

Hi,

I would suggest making sure you have two hard drive (partitions will work), My setup is to have a 20GB hard drive that only runs my OS and i then have a 130GB drive that hold all my information and runs my programs etc. this way i can reformat the 20GB drive without losing any data. works like a charm (althought the programs need to be reinstalled etc. due to registry files......).

Hope this helps. DG.

Answer 7

You can just do a system recovery. Or just delete all temp internet files and empty your recycle bin. also run adaware, it deletes all your sites you visited such as history.