cleaning off a hard drive before e-wasting my laptop

Hello -
I'm about to throw away a laptop (no, there's no hope for it).
I'd like to wipe the hard drive before sending it off to the e-recycler - just in case.
I tried to do the old standby format c: from the command prompt, but that doesn't seem to work

Is there any way I can erase files before tossing this puppy?
thanks in advance
buff

Hello,

Two very sure ways of destroying data is:

1. Remove the hard drive and trash it around.
2. There is a kind of demagnetizing machine the size of a washing machine made to wipe out data on hard drives.

If the laptop can't boot any more, then I suggest option 1. Data can still be recovered even with the good old format.

ok, let the trashing commence!
thanks
b