mcp6453 wrote:
I made the mistake of asking this question in alt.computer, so my
apologies for the somewhat duplicate post. I have some hard drives
that I am donating to charity. The drives contain confidential
information belonging to clients of a law firm. I have a free utility
that writes zeros on the drive, and there are commercial utilities
that do multiple writes. However, the commercial utility I found is
$30, which is more than I want to pay unless absolutely necessary.
Can someone recommend a free or less expensive multi-wipe utility for
hard drives, all space, not just empty?

After running one or more of these "data removal" programs, run
a few "data recovery" programs, to check nothing is there !

A data recovery company can still get data off the drive by
dismantling the drive and using specialised hardware, but if you're
that bothered, don't give the drives away, just smash the platters !

--
Mike