Want a fresh installation of a new operating system? Or are you selling your computer to a stranger? The site www.dban.org offers a solution for erasing a hard drive so all of the data is gone.

When it comes to erasing Social Security numbers and financial information for good, just deleting stuff isn’t good enough. For that, there’s Darik’s Boot and Nuke, commonly known on the Web as DBAN. You can download the DBAN boot disk for free.

You’ll either have to burn it to a CD or DVD, or put it on a USB thumb drive to install it on your computer. Then, it will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard drive it detects, including operating systems such as Windows Vista.

Other sites to check out this week:

How walkable is your neighborhood? Plug in your address to www.walkscore.com and it will spit out a score based on the distance to stores, restaurants, parks, schools, bars, libraries and other amenities.

I so could have used this site in high school. At www.combolocker.com, you can sign up for a free account and store up to five combinations or key numbers to your locks. It’s a good backup in case you forget the information and your bike is locked to a pole outside some bar at 2 a.m.

Here’s another site for forgetful types. Sign up at core.rminder.com for a free account and you’re well on your way to getting audio reminders sent to your cell phone.

By Erika Smith