Many computer owners and users are unsure just when they need to erase a hard drive, and they may be equally confused about just how to go about it when it is necessary. There are in fact many reasons to erase a hard drive, and it is important to know which methods work best for which reasons.

Perhaps the most common reason to erase a hard drive is when the computer is headed off to a new owner. Whether you are selling a computer you no longer need or giving that computer to a worthy cause, it is vital to wipe that computer of any personal information. Even if you are selling or giving the computer to someone you trust, you never know where that computer, and the personal data it may still contain, will end up. Unless you trust every friend and associate of the person to whom you are giving the computer, as well as anyone they may give it to, it is essential to thoroughly erase the hard drive of any personal information.

At a minimum, this means removing document files, spreadsheet files, database files, financial programs and other such personal information. After that information has been removed, it is a good idea to follow up with some sort of file wiping software which overwrites the space previously taken up by those files. That is because the files are not truly gone after they are erased from the hard drive Erasing the files simply notifies the computer that the hard drive space they occupied is now available for use. A skilled computer user can still recover that erased data until the actual physical hard drive space has been overwritten, and that is what these programs do.

Of course a computer does not have to be on its way to a new home in order to benefit from the erasure of the hard drive. In some cases, the computer has simply become too unstable, bogged down under the weight of too many software programs, too much spyware and too many viruses. In order to bring the PC back to its new running condition, the user may wish to erase the hard drive and restore the original software. If your computer came with a special restore CD, you can simply use this CD and follow the step by step instructions on how to erase the hard drive and restore the original software.

If your computer system did not come with a restore CD, you may want to contact the manufacturer and ask for one. Having the restore CD around before you need it can bring you real peace of mind, and in most cases the computer manufacturer will provide the restore CD either at no charge or for a nominal fee.