I'm about selling my current harddisk, in order to replace it with a bigger one. I have backed up on dvd all the useful stuff and now i want to delete completely all the files on it. In the past i used a combination of two programs (i hope you know them to be able to answer me) ccleaner and free file shredder. Now, I found your hdd wipe tool. I read it makes low level format, this sounds good but i don't understandd it completely. My question is, is it better? If yes, then my combination is also effective enough?

Yes. Just use HDD Wipe.

thanks a lot for your advice

A short comment regarding the above file deleting programs. I'm far from being a connoisseur but in my new searches i just discovered a small harddisk utility, hard disk investigator , that can be used to test if the content of a file still exists on hard disk after shredding it and after deleting with ccleaner it still was found while the hdd wipe tool left no trace. It's not a throughout test as it is very time consuming but these are my preliminary conclusions.

I find file shredders harm drives over shorter time, than the now one year or less hd life expectancy . Tested on large and small file sizes of 1-2gb and 1-2k, fails a hd in double quick time. More so if shredder uses random zeros and ones, for shredding files.

Or use a file recovery tool that has the ability to delete. Any previous deleted files it finds forever, as a shredder replacement sollution.

Perhaps you're referring to flash drives?

this could be true as i saw the operation uses intensively the hdd but if used only once or a few times before selling may be is not as harmful as used regularly.

Yes regulary, its how users normaly shred their files. some applications do this on each file deletion or before user quits a pc session. Some other software applications do this on request - empty the recycle bin. Wgich way they choose, does no good to the hard drive.

I've found a file salvage software that says it can delete already deleted files.

It's pay for, but will see if the demo shows that it can actualy delete already delete files. This would be a better replacement interface depending than shredding softwares. Does anyone know of any other similar file scavenger/undelete softwares, that can delete the old deleted files found.

Update:

Tested software: Drive Discovery v2.23

Not happy it works but does not find all deleted files, to start with. I do like the one pass wipe funtion on the deleted files i choose. More wipe passes if user needs them. Wipes at near, or real time speed.

Besides not finding many deleted files, that any other recovery tool can find easily. Is the small gui window work space, that you have to work with. Not being able to maximise the gui window is a real pain. Drive Discovery does need more developer work to it, before it is taken seriously as a work tool.