I recently bought a new computer and now I can sell my old HP P3/733. I was just wondering though, could someone eventually look at files, emails etc. from my hard drive, even after I reformat it?

Yes it's possible, although unlikely anyone would want to or would even try. If there's anything critically sensitive or private on the hard drive, you should phyically destroy the drive. Otherwise, look for a program to overwrite the entire hard drive with zeros.

thanks for the response, do you know what type of program this is called, or where I can download it?

I haven't done that personally, so I can't recommend a particular software. But here is a forum topic where a couple different programs are recommended: http://computing.net/hardware/wwwbo... Best Wishes, -Bob

Killdisk and Delpart are two others that may also be useful to use... both will turn up via a google (or similar) trawl). Maybe use a couple of the assorted utils to be sure - as in: run one; repartition/reformat - then "wipe/kill" the drive afresh. Do this maybe twice/trhee times? Unless someone is really persistant (and nosey and very adept....) not likely they will easily recover what was there in the past. I seem to recall that 22 wipe/reformats makes it almost impossible to recover data once there...; but who knows what forensic techniques are available currently - that may allow a recovery even then... If at all in doubt..., either retain the drive chez-vous; or destroy it totally - as in shred it, then burn it, then grind ashes to dust; and finally scatter ashes over an ocean from a reasonable altitude...; or launch ashes into space...; or have ashes compressed into a diamond (which then give to significant other...).

If you use ANY of the utilities to wipe the drive you MAY wipe the hidden partition which holds the restore files. That would make the computer less valuable. On another note, if you store ANY sensitive data, like SS#, CCard info, etc., you should stop doing that. You are always at risk for that info falling into the wrong hands. I don't even have sites that I buy from save my info. They can and do get hacked occasionally. If there is nothing like that currently on your drive then why worry about it.

taske a look at this link. might give you some ideas, FREE. http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.