When I got my new desktop, I realized that I didn't really need my older one anymore. I asked my friends and family, but no one wanted to take it from me. So I decided to try to make a little money from it by selling it. However, I almost made a huge mistake, but my friend was quick to point out the fact that I needed to do more than just place an ad to sell the computer.

What I didn't realize is that my computer still had personal information on it. Stored deep in the hard drive, everything that I've ever done on that computer was still there. And while I did erase all of my files and even reformatted my hard drive, my friend pointed out that a thief or some other computer backer could still access my files if they really wanted to.

Needless to say, I was shocked by this revelation. The banking information alone might have gotten me into trouble if someone has found those numbers on my computer. My friend told me that some thieves will offer to buy used computers because they know that most computer owners don't realize what they're actually giving away – free information that will reap more money than the cost to buy the computer.

What could I do? My friend was also nice enough to show me that Drive Washer could completely wipe my hard drive clean of my vital information and then I could go ahead and sell it. The program was simple to use and all I had to do was watch the progress of the ‘washing' to see when it was done. Of course, I was careful to make sure that I had taken off all the information that I did want to save, but after that, I started the program and let it do its magic.

When I was done, the computer was ready to be sold to a nice person who would be buying a great computer – and not just my information. If my friend hadn't let me in on that tip, I don't know what would have happened. I cringe at the thought.