BleepingComputer.com: Installing HD or Wiping HD Clean - Which is easier?

I have a second computer that I plan to donate to a church charity garage sale. Which in your opinion is easier to do. Wiping the hard drive clean or installing a new hard drive. Honestly anybody could purchase the computer, so who knows how well they could hack into a wiped HD. I have no problem installing a new HD and new Operating System.

So which would be easier, less hassle, and non-hackable.

Thanks - T

Well, with a new drive you certainly don't have to worry about anything

You could use Kill Disk. IMO its easier to Wipe the HDD.'



Edit: Theres always that too (posted at the same time)

Another application that seems to becoming popular with the staff here is DBAN.

Replacing the hdd may be a little more involved, but there won't be any information that could possibly be recovered. Wiping the hdd will make it impossible for the average person to retrieve the information that was on it, but if the information is important enough, there are forensic techniques using an electron microscope that can retrieve data from a wiped hdd, but it is very expensive. You need to ask yourself if your information is going to warrant that expenditure.

Which ever way you decide to go, if you have the installation CD for this computer you should reinstall the operating system, having to purchase an operating system will put this computer out of the price range of most people that ordinarily would be interested in a garage sale purchase.

Does anyone know if wiping the hard drive mean that the drivers (to connect to the internet) will be wiped out as well?

You will have to set up the Internet options again, but the only drivers that would be involved with this would be for the modem.

I have used both KillDisk and DBAN helping to clean several hundred donated PCs that were then passed along to kids or seniors.
Both programs work well - but I prefered DBAN. It's been a couple of years since I've used either.

For those individuals donating a system and worried about a compromise, we'd take the hardrive[s] out while they watched and give it back to them. They were mostly Doctors and Lawyers.