confidential info on old harddrives.

In MANY cases, the machine is being transferred/donated/given/scrapped/etc BECAUSE the previous owner could no longer get it to work, including to be able to run it enough to delete the old content. In such cases, implicit in the transfer agreement (regardless of whether it is explicitly stated) is the assumption that the recipient takes responsibility for completion of the deletion on behalf of the previous owner. Even in cases of a fully functional machine, ownership of any data that was accidentally left behind remains with the prior owner. Just as if you were to have found personal property that somebody had lost. ANY transfer of a used computer assumes that the recipient will act in good faith in the handling of residual content. Recently the Berkeley Humane Society (whose computers I'm upgrading) received a couple of machines with the hard drives, floppy drives, RAM, and ROM removed! (all due to fear of "hackers" getting at confidential data). Let's not encourage that paranoia. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com