Appendix D. Notices
Notice on Deleting Data from Your Hard Disk
As computers spread into every corner of life, they process more and more information. The data on your computer, some of it sensitive, is stored on a storage device called the hard disk. Before you dispose of, sell, or hand over your computer, you need to delete that data.
Handing your computer over to someone else without deleting the loaded software, such as operating systems and application software, may even violate License Agreements. You are advised to check the terms and conditions of those Agreements.
Deleting the data from the hard disk is not easy. There are methods that seem to delete the data:
Move the data to the recycle bin, and then choose the Empty recycle bin command.
Use the Delete command.
Format your hard disk, using the software for initializing it.
Using the preinstalled recovery program, bring the hard disk back to
These operations, however, only change the file allocation of the data; they do not delete the data itself. In other words, the data retrieval processing is disabled under an operating system such as Windows. The data is still there, even though it seems to be lost. Thus, it is sometimes possible to read the data by use of special software for data recovery. There is a risk that people of bad faith may read and misuse the critical data on hard disks for unexpected purposes.
To prevent the leakage of data, it becomes very important that you take responsibility for deleting all the data from the hard disk when you dispose of, sell, or hand over your computer. You can destroy the data physically by smashing the hard disk with a hammer, or magnetically by means of strong magnetic power, thus making the data unreadable. But we recommend that you make use of the software (payware) or service (pay service) specifically developed for the purpose.
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