Hard Drive Shredder?

[Sobek]

So, my laptop is almost out of warranty and there are a couple little nigglets that I'm going to be sending it into the factory to get fixed. Things like the battery LED broke and there's some interference with the stylus at the bottom of the screen.

Anyway, I had my Quicken, TurboTax, and other personal data on the hard drive. My preference would be to ensure that info didn't end up in the hands of random offshore worker #2481. Is there a utility that'll help me wipe the hard drive before I send it in? I know Norton used to have a "shredder", but I haven't seen anything along those lines in years.

I don't mind reinstalling Windows when I'm done. I just want to scrub my personal data one way or the other.

[Varaj]

A standard format will protect you against the threat level you are looking at.
Tons of more secure wiping stuff out there.
Google return (http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1_____ENUS239&q=secure+harddrive+eraser&btnG=Google+Search)

This looks like it should do what you want for free. http://www.killdisk.com/

[Sobek]

See, that's what I thought, too (reformatting). Then, I watched a guy at Best Buy pull up stuff on my computer that I'd blown away when I repartitioned and reformatted it.

I wish I remembered how he did it, but it didn't take any special tools.

[Varaj]

See, that's what I thought, too (reformatting). Then, I watched a guy at Best Buy pull up stuff on my computer that I'd blown away when I repartitioned and reformatted it.

I wish I remembered how he did it, but it didn't take any special tools.

I agree it doesn't take any special tools or special amount of time, but the risk of somebody doing it at a shop and then digging hard enough to find something that puts you at risk is pretty small.
But like I said lots of free shredders out there.