Recommendation for wiping my external hard drive?

I sold my 1TB external hard drive and I'd like to wipe it before i send it off. Anyone got a recommendation to do it? I downed that eraser software, but perhaps there's a better option. Thanks for any help.

 

CCleaner should do it for you (for free, too).

Just go into the options and select Wipe Free Space.


See:
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

 

Thanks, is that going to wipe it so it can't be read again.

 

I like File Shredder. It may take some time but it gets the job done thoroughly.

 

Thanks Phil. It looks like file shredder shreds files, but I'm looking to wipe the drive so no data can be read from it.

 

From what I understand;

Format your external, use ccleaner to 'wipe' the drive and when it is done, you should have a drive filled with all 'zeros'.

 

Eraser does the same thing, actually. I also sold an external. I reformatted it, and then told eraser to do two passes on unused space in the disc. Boom. Done.

 

U could use a Program off Gateways website called "GWScan" its a free program just hook it up as your main hard drive, burn and boot off of the cd. Here is the link: Gateway Support Drivers & Downloads

 

DBAN. I usually just use the standard DoD wipe.

 

Secure Erase

CMRR - Secure Erase

 

Interesting that even some veteran posters apparently don't know how to use the search function

My preferred method: boot from a Linux Live CD, fire up a terminal, and type "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M" followed by carriage return. (One needs to be careful using this in multi-drive setups; in that case, the drive you want to wipe might not be "sda.") The wiping can take a few hours on a 1TB drive.