Hi everyone,

Please help me!!!! I have an external hard disk, previously i have stored my personal files and folders inside. Right now going to give it to my friend but before doing so i need to completely delete all the data inside so that no one can access to it. I know normal delete or format cannot completely erase the data so is there a method to do the cleanup? Really appreciate that you can help.

Pinky80

Sure you can encrypt the drive then delete the partition and/or reformat it. Use truecrypt to encrypt the entire drive (use a decent password with characters, uppercase letters, lowercase and numbers). It is open source, so no cost. install it and use it to encrypt the drive. Then reformat it and it will be clean for your friend, with no way to recover the data.

Alternative is to use linux os an run the shred command on the drive..

hi humbll,

Thank you for your reply. I will try it and let you know the outcome.

Thank you very much.
Pinky80

Yes, let me know. You MAY have to do it in this order:

1. Quick format the drive (assuming 1 partition, otherwise delete ALL partitions and create 1 big one and then full format).

2. Use truecrypt to encrypt the whole drive. (one way is to create a container that is the same size as whole drive).

At this point the data previously on drive is irrecoverable.

3. Do another format on the drive to ready it for your friend to use.