I have some old pcs that I’m going to donate. What’s the safest way to erase the hard drives so none of my data is on there?
Why are people suggesting you to destroy the hard drives? Assuming you will donate the computer, it will require the hard drives with it to be usable.
Check this tool. You will need a low level format. Problem solved without damaging anything. Hard drives will be usable and data on them will be unrecoverable.
Some people are so overly paranoid lol. Like anyone is going to put in the enormous effort to get the data off some random persons HDD.
To OP - this question has been asked and answered many many times, including in our wiki posts at the top of the subreddit (the bold highlighted post that says “Recommended wiki articles”) and as a front page post just a few days ago. The search feature and our wiki help you get answers quicker and without needing our volunteers to type the same answer on dozens of posts.
To those still replying - I swear, some Redditors just like the sound of their own voice (typing?) There are one hundred and fifteen replies to this post. DBAN has been mentioned 16 times. Use your upvotes to highlight posts with good answers instead of dogpiling on OP, filling their inbox, and wasting your time typing the same thing that a hundred people have already said. And then you have more time to help other people on the subreddit with no replies so that your input actually makes a difference.
Please, go help other posts. This one is answered.