Disk cleaner

Hi, I'm giving my old pc away, I want to clean the hdd before it goes, whats a good free drive cleaner I can use,I might only use it the once so I don't really want to by one.

 

Here's a listing of what MajorGeeks offer
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads12.html

To be sure that it is completely wiped of all your information, a good program is Darik's Boot and Nuke. http://majorgeeks.com/Dariks_Boot_and_Nuke_d4596.html
You download the program and it creates a boot floppy. Put the floppy in, boot up the computer and it will wipe the hard drive. You will not have any operating system on it. If the computer came with a restore/recovery CD use that to get the OS back on. If the hd instead has a hidden partition with the restore and recovery information on it, I'm not sure that you want to use Darik's because it might wipe out the information there and you would have no OS to restore.

 

Using Wipe Utilities

In order to prevent data from being recovered, you should use data wiping software to completely erase the information to Department of Defense (DOD) standards. I recommend the following free tools to sanitize or wipe a hard drive of information:

1. * Darik's Boot and Nuke - a program that can be booted from floppy or CD to completely erase a hard drive
http://majorgeeks.com/Dariks_Boot_and_Nuke_d4596.html

2. * Eraser by Heidi Computers Limited
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4221.html

3. * Active@ KillDisk
http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

If you plan on giving your computer away, selling it, or otherwise disposing of it, please destroy the data on it by using one of the above wiping utilities.

 

Thanks guys for the very informative reply, thats just what I need, great forum by the way.

 

I'm a newb on here, but Auslogics is malware. Someone reccommended it and it's at the top of the defrag list. Don't use it. Luckily I had Rogue Killer, but it still effed up the computer. No restore from missing dlls.

 

I have personally always used Active@killdisk and never had a problem of info being recovered.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Active_KillDisk_d4791.html

 

This thread is from 2007 and had nothing to do with defragging. The OP wanted to erase/wipe a hard drive.