How do you completely wipe your computer hard drive of personal information before donating or selling it? The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says:
- Simply deleting files from your hard drive may not permanently erase that information
- If you don’t want to physically destroy your hard drive, you should overwrite the data.
- To overwrite, try using the installation CD that came with your computer.
- Installation CDs from popular manufacturers like Windows and Microsoft come with tools that can overwrite data on the drive.
- In addition, software programs from websites like www.killdisk.com can overwrite your personal information.
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