I'm sorry that you feel that I should "throw that suggestion into a blender and eat my words". I really do install brand new hard drives (albeit cheap ones) into any computers that I donate to charity. Call me paranoid, but I sleep better at night knowing that my data is safe. I would just remove the hard drive and leave it at that, but I want the charity to be able to use the laptop without having to incur the expense of a drive.You are certainly free to disagree with me, but this is how I personally do things.