[applefan]

I have an old PC laptop that I am hoping to sell on eBay before I moveo to HK. Without completely erasing the hard drive, is there a way that I can just get rid of all my documents and keep programs like Office and the operating system on it?

Thanks!

[matt.rock]

try this tool:

http://www.sharewareplaza.com/Eraser-download_4272.html

The erasing time will depend on the size of your harddisk.
Because of this reason you can buy a sixpack for the weekend

[discobay]

I would also recommend running defrag after deleting your documents to "jumble things up".

[MMP]

I would recommend Darik's Boot and Nuke. It's free!!!

It is commonly used in the IT industry and is capable of performing USA DoD level disk wipes.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

[MrMoo]

Originally Posted by MMP

I would recommend Darik's Boot and Nuke. It's free!!!

It is commonly used in the IT industry and is capable of performing USA DoD level disk wipes.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Defragging isn't enough, the files can still be recovered. Run DBAN with one pass and nothing will remain, there is no need to run multiple passes as some software supports.

[freeier]

run degauss u sure won't recover anything.. 8-P

[towercity]

I suggest using a hammer the only way to truly erase a hard disk

[Lammarite]

Leave your porn on there for the new owner to enjoy....pay it forward!

[applefan]

Thanks for all the info. However, I DON'T want to erase my hard disk. I want to be able to keep Windows and Office on it but I want to erase my documents, specifically my files with my financial information (not porn!). Another factor is that the computer I'm talking about has a broken ethernet port and it doesn't have a wireless card. Are there any programs I can purchase to just erase my files?

[discobay]

Why don't you just run Find Files to get all .xls, .doc, .txt etc files created since you've owned it and selectively delete those that you know you created.