MSPs: Get the facts you need to protect your clients.
The 2017 Webroot Threat Report provides a uniquely insightful global view into the analysis and discoveries made by the Webroot® Threat Intelligence Platform to provide insights on key trends and risks as seen by our users.
Course Of The Month
Become a Premium Member and unlock a new, free course in leading technologies each month.
Solved
Donating Old Pc and laptop
Posted on 2016-08-24
Dear All,
I am planning on donating my old Pc and Laptop and want to ensure none of my personal data remains on them. After going through several articles, I was able to gather the following points:-
1. Save / backup important files
2. Encrypt the hard disk
3. Format the Pc
4. Make us of specialized Disk erasing/wiping software
Questions:
1. How does turning on the Disk encryption help me if I am donating my Pc
2. Are there any different steps for Mac Laptops
3. Would the above mentioned steps suffice to ensure my data would not be recovered .
Thanks in advance.
T
I am planning on donating my old Pc and Laptop and want to ensure none of my personal data remains on them. After going through several articles, I was able to gather the following points:-
1. Save / backup important files
2. Encrypt the hard disk
3. Format the Pc
4. Make us of specialized Disk erasing/wiping software
Questions:
1. How does turning on the Disk encryption help me if I am donating my Pc
2. Are there any different steps for Mac Laptops
3. Would the above mentioned steps suffice to ensure my data would not be recovered .
Thanks in advance.
T
[X]
Welcome to Experts Exchange
Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.
- Help others & share knowledge
- Earn cash & points
- Learn & ask questions
-
3
- +2
7 Comments
Active today
Overwriting the harddrive with random data is sufficient no need to encrypt it.
If you want to protect your files only from normal users, zeroing out the HDD is enough. Then any software tool for recovery has no chance to get files back.
dont forget to remove burned CDs/DVD from the drives, or USB sticks/sdcards. Those may also contain sensitive files.
If you want to protect your files only from normal users, zeroing out the HDD is enough. Then any software tool for recovery has no chance to get files back.
dont forget to remove burned CDs/DVD from the drives, or USB sticks/sdcards. Those may also contain sensitive files.
Active today
4. Make us of specialized Disk erasing/wiping software
Attached the HDD to another computer and download DBAN to wipe the HDD.
DBAN is free erasure software designed for the personal user. It automatically deletes the contents of any hard disk that it can detect. This method prevents identity theft before recycling a computer. DBAN is also a commonly used solution to remove viruses and spyware from Microsoft Windows installations.
http://www.dban.org/
Attached the HDD to another computer and download DBAN to wipe the HDD.
DBAN is free erasure software designed for the personal user. It automatically deletes the contents of any hard disk that it can detect. This method prevents identity theft before recycling a computer. DBAN is also a commonly used solution to remove viruses and spyware from Microsoft Windows installations.
http://www.dban.org/
Active today
For both Windows and Mac machines - erasing the HDD should be enough. The best guarantee of course is to give the machine away without the HDD. Take the drive out, new owner can buy the drive himself for sure.
the easiest way to do it with windows is to enable bitlocker and encrpt the whole drive, boot off a windows install disk and delete the partition.
the user that receives your computer wont get the 'this disk is bitlockered' message and your data will be written in a seemingly random manner.
the other way is to download darik;s boot and nuke
boot from it and run a erase operation as Jackie has said.
the user that receives your computer wont get the 'this disk is bitlockered' message and your data will be written in a seemingly random manner.
the other way is to download darik;s boot and nuke
boot from it and run a erase operation as Jackie has said.
Featured Post
![[Live Webinar] The Cloud Skills Gap](https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/files/public/2017/5/29/3249c5dc-214e-4f8f-afab-ef354630e19f.png)
As Cloud technologies come of age, business leaders grapple with the impact it has on their team's skills and the gap associated with the use of a cloud platform.
Join experts from 451 Research and Concerto Cloud Services on July 27th where we will examine fact and fiction.
Question has a verified solution.
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question
Changing a few Outlook Options can help keep you organized!
Ever wonder what it's like to get hit by ransomware? "Tom" gives you all the dirty details first-hand – and conveys the hard lessons his company learned in the aftermath.
- Acronis
- Software-Other
- Ransomware
- Microsoft Office
- Security
- *Backup Software
This video Micro Tutorial shows how to password-protect PDF files with free software. Many software products can do this, such as Adobe Acrobat (but not Adobe Reader), Nuance PaperPort, and Nuance Power PDF, but they are not free products. This vide…
- Document Management
- Printers and Scanners
- Document Imaging
- Software-Other
- Images and Photos
- Adobe Acrobat, Photos / Graphics Software, Security, OCR, *PDF
This is my first video review of Microsoft Bookings, I will be doing a part two with a bit more information, but wanted to get this out to you folks.
Suggested Courses
Earn Certification
HTML5 Specialist - Certification
Free withPremium
Course of the Month5 days, 15 hours left to enroll
627 members asked questions and received personalized solutions in the past 7 days.
Join the community of 500,000 technology professionals and ask your questions.