How to safely sell a laptop

I'm looking to sell a laptop I no longer need. What's the best way to do this without risking the buyer somehow recovering my old files and possibly personal data. I could reinstall Windows, but that doesn't necessarily do the trick...

The safest situational way is to replace the hard drive and re-install Windows.

But I don't know your intentions. Because maybe you actually want to keep that hard drive, in which case this would be a good idea. But if it's junk and that old, replacing it is just another cost and could kill your margin. :3

CCleaner has a 'Wipe Free Space' function which overwrites all of the unused space on your drive then deletes it which would make it harder to recover files.

I don't know the extent to which this would ensure your security but it seems like it would do the trick.

Remove your hard drive and go at it with a magnet. It shifts magnetic particles to save your date, so yeah, that'll wipe it completely.

http://www.dban.org/

I win...

Download...burn to disk...instert disk...restart computer...wait...reinstall windows...

I've actually used this program on numerous occasions where I was hacking the Pentagon and a sht load of FBI agents stormed my house. Thankfully I managed to get rid of all the evidence before they could get their hands on anything and they were forced to let me go after questioning. ^___^

I did too...thats how I know its good

Sell on ebay with no hard drive, keep your old HD mate. So you loose 20 bucks? maybe... There are so many local computer stores around the globe that need every component of your laptop. Rest assured my friend; keep that hard drive if you worried… do not risk a program to fully remove the files.

DBAN is definitely the best way to go, it's a boot and nuke which writes 0's into all allocate-able space on the hard drive and does this many times. In short, it wipes the hard drive so many times that no one can even access the remnants of memory left on your computer.

Or... if you really want to be certain... degauss your HDD. ^_^ (Don't actually try this, as you cause a cascade magnetic field failure... ruining the HDD permanently..) But seriously, DBAN is amazing.

If I wanted to be that certain I'd get out the sledgehammer.
Thanks for the info on dban though.

There are many utilities available that can overwrite the entire disk (or just the empty parts). You may even already have one as part of an Anti-virus suite.
Mainly, after you've deleted any personal files and cleared your browser cache, etc., you want a utility that can erase (or, actually, write over) the deleted files so that they can't be undeleted.
Of course, if you've been hacking into the Pentagon, there are methods to retrieve even data that's been written over, so, in that case a hammer is best (but make sure to actually mangle the platters.)

I often have people asking me this sort of question and in reply I often ask them "What sort of personal data do you think people could get off your hard drive?"

If you've used the laptop for anything personal (finance, banking, credit card bills, w/e) then the safest and easiest way is, as others have said, sell it without the hard drive.

Second safest is dban if and only iff the end result is a machine with NO disk partitions (I've never used it as I know how to wipe by hand. Obviously I ain't gonna test it on my machine!). If it doesn't remove existing disk partitions and filesystems, then it may be skipping other data as well (such as the journals for those filesystems) and I wouldn't trust it.

How does one recover data from an hdd that's been DoD wiped a hundred times using a 512 pass erase and replace with 0s in every possible location?

Do enlighten me, i have no idea how actual magnetic data works at all.

Does it actually have something to do with a permanent magnetic field "stuck" within the platters?

wear a bullet proof vest?

/runs away.

on topic, the dban looks dangerous?? is it like somekind of virus?

Use DBAN or destroy your hard drive.

well it does tend to RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO over anything on your hard drive...