how to wipe a computer before selling it

Inside your hard drive are two rotating discs that sort of resemble a CD. That opens a Windows Defender Security Center window to the Fresh Start option. Use the Fresh Start option in Windows 10: Settings > Update & Security > Recovery page, Then, click the link text “Learn how to start fresh with a clean installation of Windows at the bottom.In either case, back up your files in case something goes awry. The latter, as its name suggests, will delete your files. The former resets your options to default and removes uninstalled apps, like browsers, but keeps your data intact. You can either select Keep My Files or Remove Everything.You should see a title that says “Reset this PC.” Click Get Started.

Navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.

Wait until the process finishes, then go to the Disk Utility menu > quit.

Choose MacOS Extended (Journaled) as the format.

Choose the correct startup disc and select erase.

You won’t see your usual login page, anymore, but instead will see a “macOS Utilities” window.

When the computer shuts off and powers back on, hold Command + R until you see the Apple logo.

Restart in Recovery Mode: Click  and choose Restart.

Make sure your computer is plugged in for the duration of the reset.

For a primer on cloud services, click here. Make sure you’ve backed up all of your important data in a cloud service.That means you should probably consider hiring an expert to finish the data wiping-especially because the government has certain standards for data sanitation, depending on the field you work in. If have private information or you own a company and complete that work on a computer, you may have employees’ social security numbers on the hard drive, for example. A complete erasure would actually look more like degaussing (destroying the magnetic field around a hard drive to destroy its data), or actually smashing up the hard drive to bits. In short, the reset can give you a false sense of security. Factory resets leave data in the hard drive, so those pieces will live on until your hard drive is overwritten with new data. However, that data will still live on the hard drive so you need professionals like Computer-wiz to take care of this for you. That means user data from the applications will also be deleted. It puts all applications back into their original state and removes anything that wasn’t there when the computer left the factory.

Follow the steps below, or consider taking things a step further by hiring Computer-wiz to ensure your data has been destroyed.Ī factory reset factory reset means deleting anything that wasn’t on the device after it came out of production, so this will definitely make it impossible for you to practically access programs or files on your computer. To stay safe, you need to properly factory reset your computer and clear your data before it ever changes hands.

How to wipe a computer before selling it