Ask HN: Selling laptop, how to wipe information?

I'm selling my laptop, and I'm wondering what everyone uses to wipe computers clean of personal data before passing it on.

blhack 15y

You want this: http://www.dban.org/

By the way, this isn't really an appropriate question for HN.

deafcheeseOP15y

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, I find the other part of your comment non-constructive. If you don't think that my question is inappropriate for HN, fine. But just writing it off without giving any justification or advice doesn't do anything to improve the community.

Khao 15y

I normally use a Linux boot disk to boot in live CD and then I format my disk and use an utility that writes random bits on the drive. I can't remember how this utility is called but I think a quick google search will give a lot of results.

BMarkmann 15y

I've always been partial to DBAN:

http://www.dban.org/

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