how would you wipe the hard drive (security)?

The problem with the Acer one is the lack of a DVD/CD rom drive. So using something like DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) and trying the "USB" option doesn't work. The aspire one just hangs with the blinking white line on the black screen.

Any other suggestions or fixes for this? If you've wiped the hard drive for sensitive data, how did you do it?

 

It's probably possible to boot off USB, but it will probably take some time both to find the right combination and to boot the software.

As for wiping, I've had success on other computers with low-level zero-writing software. The general consensus is (or at least used to be) that 6 or 7 low-level zero-writing passes can effectively and securely obliterate the residual magnetic traces of data. I don't know what applies for SSD drives, only for those based on magnetic platters.

 

Yeah I'm just looking for any solution right now. I have the 120gb hard drive, so no SSD here. I tried the DBAN bootable USB, but it just hangs.

 

Hi, I have successfully used UBCD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ from USB. I used have used this to both wipe and partition my hard drive.

 

Similarly, UBCD4win also boots nicely from usb. But just for dban that is a bit overkill.
If however you want to be able to run xp (pretty slowly) from usb as well, it may be of interest.