What’s the best way to securely erase my laptop’s hard drive before selling it?

First off, make sure you know whether your hard drive is HDD or SSD— looks like yours is an HDD. Since you mentioned needing to ensure no one can recover your data, the best route is actually to physically destroy the hard drive. Things like drilling holes through it or even using a grinder are foolproof methods to make sure nobody can get to your data, no matter how skilled they are.

You’ve got a couple of options here. For thorough electronic destruction, something like DBAN is popular, but it does come with a cost. If you're more into physical destruction, then go ahead and drill through the hard drive, or even demagnetize it; those methods work wonders! Alternatively, if you don’t mind keeping the drive, just take it out before selling. You can lower the price for the buyer to get a new one. Everyone wins that way!

It's not just about using software to wipe the drive; physical destruction is the way to go if you want to be 100% sure. If you have the means, destroy the drive entirely—grinding it down to dust is extreme but effective! Also, if you're worried about whether software like DBAN can mistakenly leave data behind, just focus on physical methods—it’s the safest bet.