BleepingComputer.com: wiping it all clean

my buddy used to maintain my system for me but ive lost touch with him as hes working in a different location (traveling work) and hes often gone for some time...

he would load some program that overwrites the hard drive with "0"s and "1"s a couple of times. it is a more thorough cleaning than just deleting programs and files before reloading the OS. does anyone know of which program he would use? i want to give my daughter my desktop since she is getting older and in need of a computer for school work. ill just use my laptop. id like to get all of my documents off, clean it really good and give her a fresh uncluttered install of XPpro so i dont have to try and correct issues caused by my old possibly corrupted files...

also, where might i find a full copy of XPpro and Office (NOT windows office 2007 or later but the 2003 edition)?

thanks. you guys and gals always have the answers...

http://www.dban.org/

Also you can go to the website of the brand of the HDD and download diagnostic software and run the zero writer.

As of a full copy of XP Pro and office, your local electronics store or major retail store (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) Always go genuine on your OS.

Hello

You might also consider http://www.killdisk.com/ the best solution in my opinion is to replace the drive itself, it doesn't take long and you can potentially increase the storage space of the system and have use the current hard drive as an external drive.