Got some PC towers. Worried about Kiddie Porn

Hi,
Got some PC towers from various sources.
Thinking about checking to see that all parts work.
If so, I'm thinking I'll get more from working computer than scrap value.
Worried PC's might have kiddie porn or something on hard drive that could come back to haunt me since I don't know the source.
How can I check hard drives to determine this sort of thing prior to selling. Do I need to format the hard drives to wipe out? Won't that make my life more difficult selling since I'll lose the software?

The best bet is to always wipe a drive. Just pull the registration number for the OS before you do.

I agree with the top post. DOD, NIST, and NAID compliant wiping standards are among the top in the industry. If you don't have a hard drive wiping system you should look to send them to a company who can and will provide you with pricing for the hard drives as scrap. Let me know if you have any other questions regarding data destruction, or visit dynamicrecycling.com/news-events and the article regarding Hard Drive wiping and data destruction that is posted.

I hope this helps.

Here's one tool I have used: http://www.killdisk.com/, but there are other ones out there. The free version only allows you to do one pass at a time while I think a standard DoD lever wipe is like 7 passes. For that you have to get their paid version.

By the way, I am in no way affiliated with them. There might be better tools out there, which could do more for less $ (or even no $ at all), I just didn't have a chance to search the web thoroughly

Sweet. Log splitter.

Any chance you will post a video of the beast in action? I am staring at a stack of 5 drives next to me just imagining a violent end for them.

I'm confused....if the data is on the platters, then why do you destroy the whole thing ?

I use CCleaner which you can get from http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner. Their drive wiper allows you to choose up to a 35 pass drive overwrite and it is free. Seatools available at http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools is also free and I have used it as well. As far as the software you may lose, most systems have the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) on a sticker on the outside of the case for the operating system. Any other Microsoft or major software vendor will require COA, proof of ownership or original system documentation to sell with the system (even if it came installed originally).