A computer screen displaying an error message is seen at an internet cafe in Cairo December 20, 2008. 

If you're planning on getting rid of an old computer, make sure you remove the hard drive first and smash it up with a hammer, a British consumer group advised yesterday.

Which? Computing¹ magazine said the only way to make sure fraudsters could not steal personal details from an old computer's hard drive was to utterly² destroy it, as simply deleting files or wiping the drive was not sufficient.

The magazine said it had bought eight second-hand³ drives from Internet auction⁴ site eBay and recovered 22,000 "deleted" files, including some information that could be confidential⁵.

Criminals, who it said trawled council waste sites and Internet sites like eBay, would be able to use specialist software to retrieve⁶ the information, which could then be used to commit identity theft.

"PCs contain more valuable personal information than ever as people increasingly shop online, use social networking sites and take digital photos," said Sarah Kidner, Editor of Which? Computing.

"Even if you delete your files, you'd be surprised how easy it is to recover your personal data. It sounds extreme, but the only way to be 100 percent safe is to smash your hard drive into smithereens."

英国一个消费者组织昨日建议，如果你现在正打算处理一台旧电脑，一定要先卸下硬盘，然后用锤子把它给砸了。

英国Which？Computing杂志介绍称，防止不法分子从废弃电脑硬盘窃取私人信息的唯一办法就是彻底销毁硬盘，仅删除文件或清除硬盘是不够的。

该杂志称，他们从eBay购物网上买了八个二手驱动，恢复了22000个被“删除”文件，其中还包括一些机密信息。

那些盯着废品站和eBay等购物网的不法分子们会使用专业软件恢复废弃电脑中的被删信息，然后再据此实施“身份盗窃”。

Which? Computing杂志主编莎拉•基德纳说：“随着网上购物、在线社交和数码拍照的流行，如今个人电脑中保存的私人信息越来越多。”

“即使你删除了文件，你肯定不会想到恢复这些信息如此容易。这听起来有点可怕，但要保证百分之百的安全，唯一的办法就是彻底销毁硬盘。”