'Wiping a hard drive'

Plums from the thrush tree -

A question I often hear posed is the problem of securing data on a computer when it is handed over to a service lab for repairs. Similarly the problem with overwriting data on a hard drive when a CPU is being junked or sold presents the same threat. Short of taking out the hard drive and hitting it with a hammer (not sure if that would do the job properly anyway)what is the best method for securely wiping files off a hard drive?

Comment #1 Keter from the garage door -

This is why it's never a good idea to store passwords on your hard drive, and certainly one should never agree to browsers saving passwords. The only safe way is to encrypt all passwords and sensitive data in password protected encrypted files.

Comment #2 jnights from Watching my back -

There are some good utilities that will do the trick. They write over the sectors several times and by overwriting they actually wipe the old data. It's not so simple and many people think they have wiped a drive with a quick format which is not a valid assumption.

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