I'd almost guess that most cases of personal info being found, were done so on computers that were sold/etc with the operating system still in tack i.e. they dumped the files from "my documents" and "desktop", unaware that passwords and other info is stored in many different places. I've seen machines where their attempt to delete info was obvious, but they had even left these items in their recycle bin. Once you defrag a drive, most deleted info is all but unrecoverable by even the best of file recovery programs. That isn't to say that some people will stop at nothing to retrieve such things, but a format, fresh install, and a defrag will certainly make even the best of them have to really work for it.
Also most hard drive manufacturers provide a DOS tools disk for either a floppy or CD installation that will boot the PC and format and test the drive. I have stacks of them for many different brands, because they'll generally be fully functional on a different brand only if it is installed along with another HDD of their own brand with it. These programs are free from their website
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