I have a business that replaces a computer or three a year. We are
wanting a simple way to be able to take the units which have become
slow and often freeze up back to basic. We would like to donate these
to our employees to word process on, have children do homework etc.

The problem is that they often contain old data, music, even porn and
we don?t want that to be an issue in the future. Simply put these
computers do not all have the recovery disks, they are also different
brands from Gateway, Compact and Heuwlit Packard and have windows 95- XP.

Please tell me how we can:
?	Blank the hard drive without the recover disks.
?	Restore the computer back to a level where we can load on Microsoft Office 95.
?	Ensure that we are handing over to someone a computer that will be
free of all data, porn and music.

Hi davideshawjr,

Good day and thanks for your question. 

Issuing the Format C: command alone does not guarantee that data is
wiped out. While a normal user cannot retrieve the data, there are
techniques which can be used to retrieve data.

The best technique (which we use here) is:
1. Boot the computer using a bootable system disk or Windows
Installation disk/CD. (make sure that in your BIOS setup, the first
bootable device is the CD/Floppy drive as appropriate)
2. Run the fdisk command and delete all partitions.
3. Reboot the system and follow installation instructions (if you want
to donate the computer with the OS on it).

I hope this answered your question. If you have any clarifications,
please don't hesitate to ask here via the appropriate button.

Thanks for using this service and have a nice day.

Regards,
aditya2k-ga

Search Query: format harddisk

go to dos prompt
hit FORMAT C: 
and all data will be formatted GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!

The procedure from aditya-ga and imnotacrook2001-ga is inadequate.
I'm not even sure whether one of them is joking.  Use http://dban.sourceforge.net/
or an earlier program I have used
http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave-discontinued/faq.html

Discussion of file recovery can be found at lots of places including
http://www.porcupine.org .

I have recovered files from a laptop after it was wiped and a new OS
installed.  I used no special s/w and it took me a week.  Someone
better equipped would find it easier.  I have also recoverd sensitive
information from used computers that were formatted and left
supposedly blank.

As for installing the new s/w I'd be inclined not to.  Pass the
computers on blank and the new owners get to decide what they want
installed.  Used computers are often sold blank and I prefer to get
them that way.  This also avoids disputes over who has the license for
whatever is installed. At least discuss with the new owners what s/w
they will want.

bozo99-ga is correct.  What you need is a data destruction utility.

These utilities typically use a combination of multiple passes and
writing/rewriting random data to the drive before 'zeroing' it out. 
Many people spend a lot of money on this type of software however
there is a free option available, if you know how to burn a CD image
to a recordable CD.  Darrik's Boot and Nuke disk will destroy the data
on your hard drive to DoD standards, rendering it ALMOST
unrecoverable.

http://dban.sf.net

Well, rather than promoting your software (a.k.a spamming), get your
basics right. When you delete and recreate your partition, all data is
detroyed (or in your terms - zeroed out). For all you know... the
above two comments are from the same person

The above two comments are not from the same person and I have had no
part in developing either of the programs I mentioned, nor do I know
the authors.

References:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/020163497X/qid=1105975772/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8973959-2404919?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html

http://www.csoonline.com/read/060105/machine.html
http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2003/0,4814,77623,00.html

I'd recommend using DBAN as well.  Works great, I've used it on
several systems.  FDISK just provides a mean for editing the partition
table, it does not affect any other part of the drive outside the MBR.
 Deleting the partitions in FDISK does jack.