Most people assume that simply formatting their old hard drive is all they need to do before safely selling it on. Some people may think only deleting all the files on the hard drive is enough. While formatting is a slightly better option, the data is still not completely wiped from the drive. Reformatting will erase the address table, the part which contains the location of data on the hard drive. But this can still be recovered by professionals.

There is one way which will securely erase all of your data though. Disk Erasing will overwrite the old data with new data. The process can be done easily at home using free software such as HDDerase. HDDerase works on all hard drives made after 2001 and securely erases them by invoking the secure erase function present in the hard drives. To use the software you just have to select the hard drive, hit Y and enter, and you'll have a ready to sell hard drive!