[Gottaknow]

Hi, I have an old HP Pavilion Windows 98 computer that I bought about eight years ago. I can't remember whether or not I purchased anything online using a credit card or bank account - I know that I didn't keep any of these numbers in the computer.
Six years ago I gave the computer to my boyfriend after reformatting it, and I know for sure that he didn't order anything online, because he's very afraid of this.
Three years ago I reformatted the computer again and gave it to my son who doesn't have internet access and only used it for games.
The computer has been reformatted at least two more times.
I heard or read somewhere that you should use a program to "scrub" your computer clean of information before selling it as someone with a Recovery Program can read everything on the hard drive even when deleted.
My Question Is This - Even after reformatting the computer at least 4 times, do I still need to use a "scrub program" to erase all information before selling it?

Many Thanks in advance for you help!

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That would depend on how paranoid you are.
Yes, data can be recovered, so I am told, even after a format.

Here are 2 free programs used to security wipe the drive.

Kill Disk
Eraser 5.7

[123Runner]

That would depend on how paranoid you are.
Yes, data can be recovered, so I am told, even after a format.

Here are 2 free programs used to security wipe the drive.

Kill Disk
Eraser 5.7

[xxx1]

hi,

information on the hdd can be recovered, even if has been reformatted.
you could take the hdd out.

cheers...xxx1

[james_8970]

Its nearly impossible to recover data, once a computer has been reformatted, then files saved overtop the old erased data, it is then impossible. The programs 123Runner provided, will be fine and will do the job well.
James

[SRX660]

If you wanted to you could find out what drive you have in the computer and use the makers utilities to write "0"s to the drive before reinstalling windows again. They all have some kind of utility that will do this. I have never been able to get any deleted info from drives done this way. Heres my list.

Factory hard drive utilities.

Seagate seatools
http://www.seagate.c...atools/B7a.html

Maxtor maxblast 4
http://www.maxtor.co...p;downloadID=57

Maxblast bootable cd iso
http://www.maxtor.co...p;downloadID=19

Western Digital data lifeguard tools 11.2
http://support.wdc.c...m...=999&swid=1

Fujitsu
http://www.fujitsu.c.../utilities.html

SRX660

[shard92]

the only way to guarantee that NO ONE can recover data is to smash the drive and then incinerate the remains.... HOWEVER it takes a great deal of knowledge and equipment to recover anything if you follow the suggestions the others have made. Also even if someone did go to the great lengths to recover stuff the chance that they would get usuable data on a machine like you described ( rarely if ever used for financial stuff ) is almost nil....