Recovering deleted files takes time and specialised software so it's not something most people will bother doing.

You only need to go to the time and expense of cleaning your hard drive if you don't know where your computer will end up.

So if you're selling your computer to someone you don't know, or giving it away to charity, you may want to make sure the hard drive is erased.

Clean, erase, wipe and shred

There are many different words for cleaning your hard drive but whatever you call it, the result is that the information is overwritten.

Searching the internet turns up lots of software for erasing your hard drive. Eraser, KillDisk and Mutilate File Wiper are examples of popular programs.

If you want to find out more about this type of software, you can search Download.com for words like shred, wipe, erase or clean.

Another great site for free programs is Snapfiles which lets you search for free and trial versions of privacy software and download them.

Overwriting files

These programs work by overwriting your deleted files several times with meaningless data to ensure that they are completely erased.