Hey, I am giving away an old laptop soon, and I want to clean out absolutely everything personal on it, as I cannot be positive that it won't fall into the wrong hands (it is a charity group) at some point in time.  I seem to remember seeing some programs out there that will go through and clean stuff out systematically, but I can't find any.  Does anyone here have any favorites/recommendations?  It is running on Windows XP Service Pack 2.

thanks

 

http://peachyforum.com/forums/post/152985.aspx

 

It depends on what level of security you are looking for.
CCleaner is very good and completely free.
http://ccleaner.com

Also be sure to get your hands on Eraser, a software that overwrites the entire file upon deletion (the normal deletefunction simply marks the file as a place that can be overwritten when needed, but it will still be left on the HD unless you use the drive a lot)
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php


If I were you I would run CCleaner (with the secure delte option enabled), then reinstall windows, and then have Eraser overwrite all free space on the HD. The last part would probably take a few hours but it is definetly worth it.


(I would also advice you to not install or use Evidence Eliminator wich is suggested in Funky's thread, that program is very unstable, expensive, and there has been a lot of controversy around the marketing of it)
http://ee-sucks.tripod.com/

Eraser is now portable
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/eraser_portable

For a really clean disk Boot and Nuke (would need OS reinstalled afterwards)
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Q

Choose whatever program you wish and go to www.torrentspy.com and search for it there. You will probably need DeamonTools or some kind of mounting program after you download it, but torrents are illegal so it's up to you. They have a How To guide on everything you need to know about them. Good luck