Hard disk Shredding

[AngMoKio]

Rattlesnake : Thanks for spending the time to elucidate on my point. You can't leave only the OS. Windows also 'backs up' lots and lots of files in system restore points, temp locations and various caches. Most of the hard drive in fact backed up under Windows Vista for instance.

You really need to nuke the entire drive.

It isn't the files you need to worry about exclusively. If I can grab the tokens to log into your email account and compromise it, I can then probably reset the passwords to pretty much any other account you might have. Auto login to your bank? You amazon account?

[Pripps]

I think the best way in your case is to buy a new cheap hard drive to replace your old one (and maybe later install a free copy of ubuntu or something so that it boots up), the old one you can either put in a USB adapter box or just add it to your new comp. In my experience often when you get rid of a drive you most certainly forget to copy something important