What's the best way to wipe a hard drive and remove personal data?

[Bravo Zulu]

I'm thinking about trading in my toshiba laptop for a new one and they charge $15.00 to wipe the hard drive, which doesn't sound too bad, but I was wondering if you could do it yourself.

Thanks
Al

[pokerfan]

1. open source

I've used http://www.heidi.ie/node/6">Eraser.

[Duer 157099]

2. My advice is to remove the hard drive and keep it

It's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

[ChromeFoundry]

3. Use a Linux Live-CD and SHRED

http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2009/03/20/scrub-pc

you cannot do this while you are in Windows... you need to host the OS from a different source. This is why a Live-CD works so well.
Plus, you may just end up actually enjoying Linux and won't have to pay for another Operating System, riddled with security faults, in the future.

[RC]

4. dban

http://analysisandreview.com/computer-hardware/how-to-erase-your-hard-drive/

DBAN is a free disk eraser located at dban.sourceforge.net which will wipe most hard drives clear of all data. WipeDrive is approved by the Department of Defense, and it is trusted by government agencies and major corporations as their primary disk wipe utility. Wipedrive will permanently wipe all hard drive information / data including partitions, formats & file data. Wipe external hard drives, thumb drives, memory cards, SD, SDHD, SDXD, iPods & other external media. Support for all PC and Mac Computers (Intel, AMD & PowerPC).

[RoyGBiv]

5. DBAN ...

This is what I recommend. Easy to use and kills everything just by turning on the machine.

That link is a bit weird. Strikes me more as an advertisement for WipeDrive with some additional info about DBAN obfuscating its nature.

Here's the direct link to DBAN:

http://www.dban.org/

[trotsky]

8. Another vote for DBAN. n/t

[Occulus]

6. Thermite.

:P

[madokie]

7. BFH

a Big fucking hammer will do it everytime