Date: 10/16/05 (Computer Help)    Keywords: no keywords

I'm selling a laptop I bought in 2004 that has a lot of my financial information on it - bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc. How many times do I need to wipe the hard drive to wipe this data completely beyond any shred of possibility of being recovered by the new buyer? I realize there's generally a slim chance I'd sell it to someone who'd use it for identity theft, but I don't want to take any chances. I've been told that reformatting the hard drive once is not sufficient, but I don't know where that leaves me -- three times, six times, ten times, etc?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computer_help/510115.html