Anyone recommend a zero-out program for a hard drive?
 

kthnx

what do you mean

I recommend a Stanley 12# hammer with leather comfort-grip.

Zero that bastard right out.

"Kill Disk"

so when you do a full reformat and dont do quick erase it doesnt zero them all out?

someone got tipped on the child porn

hahaa aha

I'm donating a laptop and want to make sure all of my stored passwords and account information is basically gone (or as gone as can be).

try this:

http://www.cezeo.com/products/disk-redactor/

i haven't used it but i'd imagine it works.

don't laptops normally come with factory setting discs or whatever? mine did.

For PC, Darin's Boot and Nuke is a good free one. For Mac, Disk Utility (on the OS install disc that came with the computer) has been able to zero out since OS X 10.4 or higher, I think. Both of these programs have various 'thoroughness' settings, where you can choose to either do a single zero-out pass, 7-pass (department of defense standard), and 21-pass, for those of us who are still paranoid about the 'black oil'