Quote from: keyzersoze on July 31, 2012, 12:15 pmIm no expert and I could be wrong but if you are installing truecrypt, then there is no need to wipe the system other than format the drive as truecrypt writes "data" to the whole drive and so anything else would be over written......However if it was me, just for safety I would wipe the drives with a programme like acronis drive cleanser or something similar, and then do my install of OS and true crypt.Hi keysersoze,Your understanding is correct. If you have full disk encryption in place then a forensic analysis of your hard drive after you've installed your Operating System over it would be of little use.If you're feeling ultra paranoid OP and on the basis that you can never be too safe why not use Darik's Boot and Nuke (http://www.dban.org/) - just burn it to a CD and boot your computer up with it in the tray. The instructions are very easy to follow. The best method to use is Gutmann which overwrites data 35 times to prevent recovery.If like me you have a solid state drive, this won't do you any good, so just encrypt the whole operating system, format the drive, install your new OS and hope for the best, I really have nothing more to add on that one - perhaps one of our security gurus could provide some more guidance? :-)V.