Double-Quick Data Destruction

If you sell or otherwise dispose of your computer you must delete all of the data it contains. This is vitally important, not just from a security standpoint, but it’s also technically illegal to sell on a PC with Windows and many commercial programs installed unless you also transfer the licences, though this is almost impossible to do.

Active KillDisk remains my favourite method for deleting the data on a drive, but here’s a new one, called Darik’s Boot and Nuke, and this program really lives up to it’s name! Just boot the PC using a CD, DVD, pen drive or floppy and it totally destroys all of the data on every drive it finds. UI suspect this will be of interest to anyone who needs to lose a lot of data in a hurry, when the authorities come a-knocking but it has plenty of entirely respectable applications, particularly for anyone selling or recycling a computer. Just be careful how you use it, there’s no going back once it has started…