Mar 11, 2019 · Pick up any old computer being tossed out on the street, and odds are its hard drive will still be in it — and will have a wealth of information about its previous owners. MORE: How to Protect

Before you wipe your computer’s hard drive or do a factory reset, make sure to back up all of your information to your new computer, an external hard drive, or a web service. Backing up your data regularly is a smart way to keep your data safe. Hard drives can crash, get lost, stolen, or encrypted by ransomware software. The best defense is Jun 02, 2020 · The computer asks you "Are you sure you want to erase everything on drive c:" If you are ok with doing this, press "Y" for yes and press Enter. After doing this, the computer begins the formatting process. While the computer is formatting, make sure no errors are encountered. I'm getting bad sectors, clusters, or missing allocations. How to wipe the hard drive of a Windows computer. Note: This process works for Windows computers only. 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. Jul 08, 2019 · Second, you want to wipe out the drive using a secure method to make sure you've removed your personal information and applications beyond recovery, and install a clean copy of Windows 10 to

Oct 27, 2015 · A step by step video on Windows 10 reset. See how to wipe a computer clean, start over and keep personal files. Reset Windows 10 to factory settings fast, free and easy.

Jul 17, 2020

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac

If you want to wipe the entire computer, you should make sure the software can work on bootable drive. Ensure battery is full. If you want to wipe a laptop, you should make sure the battery is well charged or connected to power. If power goes out during disk clearing, it might spell disaster to the drive.