Comment Re:Wipe (Score 1) 547
I boot off a DVD/USB to a minimal Linux system then write over the whole drive with cryptographically secure random data. That is a bit overkill but I work in security/cryptography and often have or had extremely sensitive data on my machine. "dd if=/dev/zero" works faster and is plenty good for normal people. This "nukes" the whole drive to a blank slate.
From there I'm usually able to install whatever OS they are using and set the machine up fresh. If the company has draconian IT policies and I can't install the OS then I let them re-image the drive. I only do this after I completely wipe the drive myself though. A re-image on top of your existing system most likely will not wipe all your old data.