you can do an llow level format, what was called fdisk on the drive, but 
best thing is to remove the hard drive and keep in a drawr. you never know 
when you may need something off that old drive. no reason to smash it
it is easy to remove a hard drive from a tower or laptop without ruining 
the computer

On Thu, 4 Aug 2011, Lisa McManus wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have had a few computers in my time, but I apparently didn't dispose of them in the best or safest way.  But hopefully dispite my negligence no one has gotten hold of my information off of my computer and used it in any malicious way.
>
> You hear in court cases where people that committed crimes thought that as long as you deleted searches that you did or personal information that it was allright and no one could find it, but computer experts testified to the fact that that that stuff can be retrieved.
>
> Anyway, I want to do it the right way this time.  I got a new computer a bout a year ago or more.  The old one has just been sitting hear.  I heard someone say that the only way to get rid of the information on the hard drive was to to take the hard drive and break it up with a hammer.  Is there anything short of that to do to totally clean off the hard drive so I can get rid of this computer to a goodwill or something to get it out of my way"  Thanks very much for any help in advance?
>
> Lisa
>
>
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