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- #HOW TO WIPE A COMPUTER TOWER HOW TO#
- #HOW TO WIPE A COMPUTER TOWER PC#
- #HOW TO WIPE A COMPUTER TOWER WINDOWS 7#
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MORE: Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know Do you trust your boss?īusinesses also have an interest in making sure personal data is kept secure. In this case, it is in their best interest to make sure your data is safe. The reason to follow this path, said Kyle Marks of Retire-IT, a Columbus, Ohio, firm specializing in computer disposal, is because these companies could end up being liable if your personal data is found on a device they refurbished and sold. However, if you want to recycle the phone, your safest option may be to sell it to a company that refurbishes phones for re-sale. If you intend to never use the phone again, the best option is to physically destroy it. "Additionally, they are not overwriting the data multiple times to prevent forensic equipment from being able to recover it." "Many cellphones have a 'restore to factory defaults' option that will delete data, but in many instances, it has been shown that this does not always work," said Adam Wosotowsky, messaging data architect at Santa Clara, Calif., digital-security firm McAfee. Apps are available to "wipe" the devices if they are lost or stolen, but the technology is still relatively new and some data can be left behind. Smartphone and tablet owners now store a great deal of personally identifiable information on these devices. The real problems lie with mobile devices and work computers. Off the premisesĮliminating personal data from personal computers kept at home is relatively easy. If you're sending your computer to be recycled, or you're donating it to a relative or a charity, the best way to protect your personal data is to simply remove the hard drive and physically destroy the drive. Consult your SSD maker's website for instructions.
#HOW TO WIPE A COMPUTER TOWER PC#
If you have a solid-state-drive (SSD) in your PC instead of a traditional spinning hard drive, most SSDs included disk-wiping utilities that should do the trick. "Those technicians will know enough to identify the proper tools to wipe your drive." "Make sure that the computer technician is one understands that deleting a file, formatting a hard drive or reinstalling an operating system doesn't render the data unrecoverable," Kelley said. If that's the case, and if you want to keep the hard drive with the computer, Kelley recommended taking the machine to a qualified computer technician to perform the work. However, not every attempt to clean off the hard drive is 100 percent successful. "I have recommended this to many of my friends who aren't tech people and have them use the instructions on ." "This also uses the write-zero approach, overwriting each block with binary zeroes, and is super easy," Kinney said.
#HOW TO WIPE A COMPUTER TOWER WINDOWS 7#
"Programs such as BCWipe and Eraser can perform this work."Īn even easier way to do this, provided the user has Windows 7 or better, is to create a system repair disk and then format the hard drive using the standard format command, said Matthew Kinney, executive vice president of research and development with staffing-software maker BWSI in Phoenix. "The most important thing to consider is that to be certain that you got all of your data, you need to wipe the entire hard drive," Kelley said. If you have any questions about this, we have Agents available 24/7 at 1-800 Geek Squad or chat with an agent here."With computers, it isn't difficult to wipe data, if you understand what you are doing and do it correctly," said Greg Kelley, chief technology officer with Vestige Digital Investigations in Medina, Ohio.
#HOW TO WIPE A COMPUTER TOWER HOW TO#
We also have a Tech Tip on our website outlining how to wipe a hard drive. A while back, we put together a ” Two Minute Miracle” video to help people understand how to securely wipe their hard drive before handing it to someone else for reuse or disposal. To make sure you none of your personal information goes out with your computer when you let it go, there are some extra steps you should take to make sure your hard drive is really blank.įortunately, Geek Squad is here to help. Some data recovery tools can recover deleted files. Selecting all the files and deleting them is not enough. It’t hard to keep track of all the important personal information you end up storing on your computer, so it’s a good idea to scrub all the memory on the machine before letting it leave your possession. But before you bring it in to Best Buy for recycling or donate it to a worthy non-profit, don’t forget to wipe your hard drive. Now that you’ve gotten all our browser favorites and music moved over to the new machine, it’s time to think about clearing it off your desk.