Secure wipe for hard drive?

[chal2les]

Hard drive - what's the best free program to secure a hard before selling it?

 

[DuronClocker]

When I was getting rid of a bunch of hard drives last year, I used dban (www.dban.org)

Some of those patterns take a LONG time.

 

[chal2les]

Looks like you can only do it through a boot up disk. What about in window?

 

[HeavensCloud]

Use DBAN, you will have to reformat and reinstall anyways.

 

[iroc409]

I did some a while back using Windows diskpart clean, the format and run Eraser.

 

[adoch]

sysinternals sdelete.exe ? I've never actually used it for secure deleting though, but I guess it does it well.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443

 

[Aesma]

Use DBAN, you will have to reformat and reinstall anyways.

He didn't say he was selling his system drive.

I was using Acronis Drive Cleanser at one point, because I could do a multipass wipe that lasted 3 days and still use the computer.

 

[BENN0]

In Windows 7 just do a full format, this way it will be completely overwritten with zeroes.
There is no point in doing multiple pass / random data writes on modern drives.

 

[haileris]

DBAN if its personal. If your paranoid I'd use something approved. For example Blancco is certified by Governments (not sure on the UK accreditation anymore but it was) so should be reasonably proficient at its task.

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=337620

 

[ninjaturtle]

CCleaner has a built-in disk wiper.

 

[cyclone3d]

CCleaner has a built-in disk wiper.

+1 for CCleaner.

I use the 3-pass wipe when we get rid of drives where I work.

Make sure you choose the full wipe and not just the free space wipe though.