Using strong magnets will be just as bad as using a hammer because they can destroy the heads on the HD.

Best thing to do is keep the hard drive and send the computer to a recycler, if you're that worried about it. Personally, I really don't keep that much information on the computer to worry about it. For most people, running a low-level format, then a full DOS format, then reinstalling Windows and defragmenting the hard drive will usually do the trick for info protection.

The trick is overwriting the old data. When you delete a file, the controller on the hard drive simply marks that spot for overwrite, but it doesn't actually delete anything until it's overwritten. Problem is that most operating systems just keep writing to new locations until the hard drive is either full or completely fragmented. Running a defrag is the best way to delete that old stuff for sure.

 

No need to expose it to a magnetic field, run it over with you car, beat it to hell with a hammer, drop a nuke on it ect. The Boot and Nuke program is small, easy to use and if you run it with at least 7 passes is more than sufficient to permanently erase any trace of data. It works by writing random junk to the entire drive multiple times. In Addition if you don't destroy the drive it will still be fully usable (after reloading the OS)

I suppose you could use the other techniques if you have a lot of stress you need to relieve.

 

I always strip the system of what I want or don't want others to get. But you can format the drive and it the agency is reputable, you should be safe. It is very expensive to extract data from an erased HD. I doubt anyplace that takes donations will have that technology.

 

Formatting DOES NOT ERASE FILE DATA! It only erases the File Allocation Table (FAT). You have to run a multi-pass data zeroing utility like the boot and nuke program to reliably erase file data.

We beat them w/ a hammer because we dispose of them. When we surplus a PC it goes to the salvager without the hard drive, we then dispose of the removed hard drives separately. The data zeroing plus physically damaging the drive with a hammer makes it unrecoverable by most anyone except the NSA, lol. BTW, our stuff is usually 6+ yrs old by surplus time, so the drives are way obsolete anyhow.

 

As has been mentioned several times here, formatting doesn't do it. The links posted, as well as a few other suggestions, reference overwriting the data on the disk with jibberish. These programs overwrite the entire disk, hitting every bit on every sector. The more often you overwrite, the better off you are. My mother worked for many, many years at Memorex in their hard drive division during they hey-day of Silicon Valley. As a tech in the salvage area, she knows of what she speaks. Overwrite, overwrite and overwrite again. Then, if you wish to make doubly sure, disassemble the drive, remove the platter(s) and scrub thoroughly with a wire brush to obliterate the surface of the disk. Be sure to do both sides of any and all disks in the drive (some drives have multiple platters, especially older technology drives).

 

Unless you been keeping the SECRET files on the KENNEDY ASSIGNATION all this time, just use any free program like this http://www.killdisk.com/ format/scrub, re-install the OS and Donate, no worries!!

 

Hey, flashcards in digital cameras work the same way. Just deleting a picture doesn't necessarily overwrite it-- it only is marked as okay to overwrite wehn and if the camera needs storage space in that sector.

Not to hijack, but have to share a funny story here. I used to work in the area of forensic data recovery for our dept. We shared a Nikon e995 camera with other guys in CID. So I was installing a flash card reader on my PC and this one guy in CID who isn't real up on tech stuff had taken the e995 home over the weekend. At that time guys were allowed to sign the camera out as long as they brought it back in one piece, but they weren't supposed to be taking it home and especially over the weekend. So that Monday I say out loud within earshot of everyone that "hey, I'm going to test out my new flashcard reader and do a picture recovery on the camera flashcard, I wanna make sure I can use this thing for recovering deleted photos, where's the camera?..." ROFLMAO! The CID guy hadn't signed the camera back in yet, and after that it didn't get signed back in until the next day. Found out from another guy that he practically ran the battery down taking picture after picture of a white background until the entire card was full. Wonder what he had used the camera for over the weekend?...