While there’s nothing to stop you selling your PC with the contents of its hard drive intact, it’s a very bad idea. Apart from the fact that you’ll be giving the new owner access to all of your files and other personal information, you’ll also be selling any software that’s still installed. Even if this was legal (which it usually isn’t), that means you won’t be able to install the same software on your new PC — not without breaking the law, anyway.
So the solution is to wipe your PC and restore it to a factory fresh state, with nothing but the Windows operating system installed. This, incidentally, is something you might also want to do when you want to reinstall Windows from scratch to give your computer a new lease of life — getting rid of years’ worth of old stuff can work wonders. This process has changed a bit with the arrival of Windows 10 and there are two ways to do it, depending on what you want to achieve. We’ll cover both.
Over the past year my laptop has become very sluggish and slow so I want to erase my hard drive and start from scratch. All of my information is backed up on an external hard drive so I can recover my Outlook PST and so forth. Securely erase your hard drive Then, when you’re ready to proceed, press the F10 key to begin the secure erase. This will take some time and the process cannot be interrupted. You want to regain the full storage of the Seagate external hard drive. Wipe Seagate external hard drive with Super Eraser. When you are going to clean up the disk space of your Seagate external hard drive, you may just delete the files or format the Seagate external hard drive. However, there are two disadvantages when you use deletion or format. If you want to format a hard drive and reinstall Windows, see: How to erase my hard drive and start over. Note If you want to format a write-protected USB flash drive, you must first disable the write protection, then proceed with formatting the flash drive.
Getting ready
Step 1: Backup your files
Windows 10 can ‘refresh’ your PC without affecting your documents, but we still recommend backing them up before trying it — just in case.
When you wipe your PC, on the other hand, everything on it is lost, so you’ll need to backup any files and documents you want to keep.
The easiest way to do this is to drag the contents of your Documents folder (and any others you want to save) onto an external storage device, such as a hard drive or USB flash drive. Alternatively, you can use cloud storage such as BT Cloud. Copying to and from cloud storage will be much slower than using an external hard drive, however, so think twice before using it for more than a few gigabytes worth of files.
Step 2: Save your software serial numbers
Any installed software will also be lost when you wipe your PC (whichever method you use), so you’ll need to reinstall it afterwards. So review what’s currently installed, and dig out the corresponding install discs and serial numbers.
Most relatively recent software can usually be downloaded, too, but you’ll still need a valid serial number or activation code to use it. If you don’t have these, a free tool like Belarc Advisor will list all software installed on your PC and any corresponding serial numbers — just click Software Licences in the left of its results windows to see yours.
Step 3: Download any drivers
While Windows 10 should detect all hardware in a relatively new PC and install its own drivers, it’s risky to rely on that happening. If nothing else, you should download the necessary driver for your computer’s Wi-Fi or network adapter, then at least you’ll be able to get online afterwards to download any other drivers you might need.
You’ll need to refer to your computer’s manual or its manufacturer’s web site to see which driver you need — and best sure to save it on a removable drive, not the hard drive you’re about to wipe.
Option 1: Reset this PC
Windows 10 has a built-in method for wiping your PC and restoring it to an ‘as new’ state. You can choose to preserve just your personal files or to erase everything, depending on what you need.
Go to Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery, click Get started and select the appropriate option. How to get auto clicker for roblox no download. Then follow the on-screen instructions to restore Windows 10 to a factory fresh state.
Option 2: Securely format the PC
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. This is rather more involved than Option 1 and the exact steps to reinstall Windows afterwards depend on how Windows 10 was supplied.
If you don’t have a Windows 10 install disc of some sort, you’ll need to follow Steps 1 to 6 of our How to perform a clean installation of Windows 10 guide, but don’t go any further than Step 6 for now.
1. Download DBAN
Whatever these case, once you have a Windows 10 install disc, you’ll then need to download the free DBAN (Darik Boot And Nuke) tool and burn it to a CD.
2. Boot your PC with the DBAN disc
Boot your PC using the DBAN disc and press the [Enter] key to continue from the first menu screen.
Erase Computer Hard Drive Before Donating
When the main DBAN screen appears, use the [J] and [K] keys to highlight the hard drive partition you want to erase (if there’s more than one) and select it by pressing the [Space bar].
Payday 2 skin download. 3. Securely erase your hard drive
Then, when you’re ready to proceed, press the [F10] key to begin the secure erase. This will take some time and the process cannot be interrupted.
4. Reinstall Windows 10
When the secure erase has finished and you see a ‘Blancco’ ad, eject the DBAN disc and reset your PC. You can now reinstall Windows 10 by following Steps 7 to 11 in our guide.
Knowing how to completely erase a hard drive can save you and your organization millions of dollars in the long run. How? By simply avoiding the type of data breaches that lead to huge fines and lawsuits. In 2008, Heartland payment systems had to pay about $145 million in compensation after leaked user data was used to carry out fraudulent transactions. This can happen to any organization, even yours, if you don’t handle data properly. Data destruction techniques like hard drive shredding have low costs, compared to that of damage control after a breach.
How To Erase Your Hard Drive And Start Over Every
One common misconception is that these organizations are immune to data breaches as long as they fortify their online servers against malware and intrusion. This is not completely true because data can be stolen from hard drives accessed remotely. Compass Bank suffered this fate in 2008 when one of the company’s hard drives containing the records of one million customers, was stolen by a former employee with the intention of committing credit card fraud.
Another common misconception is that as long as you delete files from a computer, you have successfully wiped them from the hard drive. This is also false because when you delete a file, it does not leave the system. Bad actors can still access previously deleted data in the form of personal records, passwords and bank account details. They can use the acquired information to carry out credit card fraud, identity theft and other crimes. Fortunately, by simply knowing how to completely erase a hard drive, you can avoid this situation. You can securely destroy data stored on a drive in any of the following simple ways:
1. Using Hard Drive Erasure Software
The use of software to wipe hard drives can produce great results especially for people who don’t want to damage the hardware. You can easily pick one out of many different data erasure apps available on the market, like DBan, CCleaner and BCWipe. However, when deciding which software to get, it is important to keep in mind that they differ in functionality. There are two main types of erasure:
Write Software
Some erasure software work by writing all the data on the drive to “Zeros”. Normally, data is represented by combinations of ‘1s’ and ‘0s’, so writing everything to zeros renders the data unreadable. Unfortunately, some people can find ways to undo this method using rare forensic techniques. However, for someone who doesn’t already know how to erase a hard drive, this a great option because it is easy to use.Rewrite Software
Alternatively, you can carry out a more reliable option called a rewrite. Using a special algorithm, the software rewrites data multiple times in a random manner so that nobody else can decode it. Some algorithms like the Gutmann algorithm rewrite the data on a hard drive as much as 35 times. This method is failsafe and ensures that no one can read the files on the drive.
2. Degaussing the Hard Drive
You can wipe a hard drive using a strong magnetic force to scramble the data stored on it, in a process known as degaussing. If you use this method, you will also wipe the start-up files that control the hard drive booting process. This means that once you have degaussed a hard drive, you can no longer use it.
You can carry out the degaussing process using a machine known as a degausser. There are various types available, including electromagnetic and permanent magnet degaussers. While you can easily purchase a degausser, buying one to erase the data on just one batch of hard drives, is a waste of money. How to get windows 10 minecraft on pc. A more suitable option would be to hire a data destruction company to handle the entire degaussing process.
3. Putting Holes in the Hard Drive
Knowing how to completely erase a hard drive by destroying it physically saves both the time and money that other methods require. Although this renders the drive useless, it is one of the best ways to ensure that no one ever gains access to the data on it. It is also a great option because it doesn’t require any complex machines to work. So how do you completely erase a hard drive using this method? There are two major ways to go about it:
- By using a hammer or nail gun to drive a nail through the hard disk platter to ensure that the hardware part of the drive can no longer function properly.
- By drilling holes in the platter, using a hand drill.
4. Shredding the Hard Drive
Hard drive shredding completely erases data by destroying the hardware completely. The process is quick and requires a shredder, which cuts off every track on the platter of a drive. Companies like All Green Recycling offer affordable and reliable hard drive shredding services. This takes the stress of renting a machine and operating it unsupervised, away from the owner. Shredding is especially great when you have no plans of using the hard drive in future.
5. Using a Trusted Data Destruction Company
Although you can try all the methods listed above at home, doing it yourself isn’t the best option for several reasons. Firstly, you may not know how to completely erase a hard drive properly, leading to leftover data. Secondly, when you factor in the cost of equipment, doing it yourself is stressful, time-consuming and expensive. This is why the best option is to use the services of a trusted data destruction company.
The data destruction industry exists to serve organizations that understand the importance of avoiding a data breach. All Green Recycling offers affordable and secure data destruction services including certificates of destruction, chain of custody and liability, Hard drive Shredding, and degaussing amongst others. We also have drop-off sites in every state so that businesses can reach us conveniently from any location within the country. Contact us to avoid such situations by getting rid of all sensitive data on old devices as soon as possible.
Have you recently encountered problems with data disposal? Leave a comment below and we will respond. Don’t forget to share this with anyone who would like to learn about secure data destruction.