[Clear/delete] Personal Information etc

I am changing jobs soon and will be giving back my Dell laptop to the Company I am leaving. Obviously I am going to delete my private email account and clear out cookies etc before I do but does anyone have a checklist or tools they can recommend to ensure all private information (i.e. password manager etc) is cleared before I return it?

Thanks in advance as always.

 

Well the best approach would be a full drive wipe followed by a clean install
Deriks boot and nuke or
http://www.killdisk.com/


But I get the impression you do not want to go that far.
I would just use eraser from sourceforge.
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

In additon to a dod level erase in the right click menu allowing you to obliterate specific files, it has the "erase unused space" allowing you to go and overwrite areas of the drive where previously deleted files can still be recovered from.
I would use this to delete what specific files you know you want gone, then go back and empty all temp and temp internet files etc, remove any personal settigns etc and then wipe the free space. It may give you a warning about insufficient disk space as it nears completion , just ignore this and let it finish.

 

Hmmm - you will be gone and any job recommendations for you will have already been written.

I don't see any downside to using oshwyn5's "best approach ". Chances are the company will restage the PC anyway.

 

if u don't full wipe, i'd get all the obvious stuff like visible files/accounts but i'd also wipe the temp folders and the swap file.