How to Prepare a Computer, Tablet, or Phone Before Selling It

If you're selling or giving away a Windows computer, you'll want to wipe the hard drive to remove all of your personal data from it before handing it over to someone new. Simply deleting files or formatting the hard drive isn't enough, as data recovery software may make it possible to recover the data later. Mar 01, 2011 · Why you need to erase your hard drive/SSD. When you empty your trash bin on your Mac, the files are not really erased. Instead, the reference to the file is removed from the file system (which keeps a list of all the files on your computer), so the computer is able to write new information in the same physical area when space is needed. Dec 15, 2016 · Why you should wipe your hard drive. You definitely need to wipe your hard drive thoroughly before selling it or giving it to someone else. Some of the many high profile cases we have seen recently of not having wiped a drive include the Lockheed Martin drives in 2009 that contained missile data and confidential employee information.

How to Wipe a Computer Clean of Personal Data - Consumer

How to securely erase hard drives (HDDs) and solid state Dec 29, 2017 Quickly Wipe All Data from HP Computer before Selling It

Mar 07, 2019

Jul 02, 2020 · If you're wiping a mechanical hard drive, you'll want a drive eraser utility that meets the DoD 5220.22-M standard. This means the utility will fully wipe your drive by overwriting your data three Jul 12, 2017 · To wipe an external drive on Windows, you can use one of many drive-wiping tools. CCleaner is a particularly easy one to use — you just need the free version. Insert the USB drive or plug in the external hard drive, open CCleaner, and use the Tools > Drive Wiper feature. Feb 20, 2019 · If you’re selling or giving your PC to someone else, it’s a good idea to securely erase the hard drive before reinstalling Windows 10 to prevent any old data from being recovered. Nov 06, 2019 · Factory resets leave data in the hard drive, so those pieces will live on until your hard drive is overwritten with new data. In short, the reset can give you a false sense of security. Jun 30, 2020 · Part 2. Erase laptop SSD permanently before selling it. Part 1. Wipe laptop HDD completely to sell. When you want to wipe data from Hard disk drive, follow the step-by-step guide below. 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right click the drive you need to wipe and select “Wipe Hard Drive”. 2. Choose a method to wipe hard drive. 8 Tools to Wipe a Hard Drive Before Selling or Lending It HAL9000 Updated 4 years ago Software 26 Comments A lot of computer users will know that when you delete a file, it isn’t actually completely gone from the system and can often be recovered with a simple piece of data recovery software .