The local schools put out the call this week for parents to donate their old computers. The donated PCs are mostly used for the younger kids, who don’t require a lot of bells and whistles and processing speed, but I suppose they could also end up being used by the high school and middle school kids, depending on the needs of each school.

Now, I don’t know about you, but regardless of who I’m donating my old computer to, and who it may be used by, I’d want ALL my personal data removed off that computer before I make such a donation. I thought that reformatting the hard drive would be enough, but then I read this online:

Despite popular belief, simply deleting files or formatting a hard drive does not get rid of the files that are on there. Files are recoverable by anyone who possesses the knowledge needed.

This is the reason why, even though a computer says there there is x amount of free space available, it’s a good idea to do a free disk space wipe.

Whenever a file is deleted on a computer hard drive, instead of being gone, it is now just available space. which means the file remains until it is written over by another file. There are plenty of products available for disk wiping, and to be safe the drive should be wiped three times, not just once.

The amount of time it takes to wipe depends on the size of the hard drive. If you are only wiping a small amount of space, such as with a free disk space wipe, it’s a good idea to make a temporary partition for the space. This way only that part of your hard drive is wiped out, and not the whole thing.

You learn something new everyday…at least, I do. Think about it - do you want to take any chances? You may think you’ve deleted every trace of your 2004 tax return, and those naughty pictures of your wife, and your stored passwords, but can you be sure? When you perform the
wipe disk / file shredder combo, you can be sure that your private and personal information is truly gone. The file shredder also allows you to clear chat transcripts, temporary internet files, and even clipboard date. Definitely a good tool for those of us who may be using a “borrowed” PC!

Wiping a disk is the only way to ensure that your information is truly unrecoverable.

This is a sponsored review.