Hard drive privacy

Hallo i want to give away my hard drive.
If i format it and then fill all the hard drive with games or movies for example , it is a security risk?
can the the next user find my old windows installation and take my personal data?

thnks

 

yes it can pose a security risk , deleted data can be recovered by certain software however here you can download a trial of east tec secure dispose. it can delete all previous remnants left over , so you can giveaway the drive safely :

http://www.east-tec.com/disposesecure/

 

I knew that the simple recovery software works only if you dont rewritte all the hard drive with another data . Is this false?

 

I do not know exactly , but one cannot be sure enough

 

If you have deleted your hard drive with some tool, a recovery software shouldn't find anything.

There is also CopyWipe which can be used to wipe entire hard drives: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php
1-pass should be sufficient.

A simple full-format (no quick-format) of the partition/drive can also be done to erase all data.

 

thanks you all.
I made a full format and then, i full all the drive with movies.

 

If you use a tool like Western Digital Data Lifeguard to write zeros to "every" sector of the drive (not just the first & last million), I don't see how it can be recovered with anything.