How to clean personal info off old PC's?

6 thoughts on “How to clean personal info off old PC's?”

1. themarthian says:

   April 23, 2011 at 2:21 am

   you can try finding software to write 1’s and 0’s all over it, then reformat it. Or just reformat it a lot.

2. Colanth says:

   April 23, 2011 at 2:21 am

   If you’re going to junk it, and the drive is worth anything (250GB or more), format the drive. If it’s not worth anything, remove it from the computer and chop it in half with an axe. (Seriously.)

   If the computer is going to be used by someone, install Linux on it. That will wipe out all your old data and leave the computer usable.

3. K says:

   April 23, 2011 at 2:21 am

   A security software or program can be used and generally needs to be booted from cd/dvd/ drive or diskette and a security wipe done of the drive. Such a wipe is generally an erase and perhaps write process of 3 or more times.

   I used a program called DataEliminator which can wipe drives that contain different operating systems and thus offers flexibility.

4. Dman says:

   April 23, 2011 at 2:21 am

   boot into a live disc like Backtrack 4 and do a write sequence over the entire hard drive

   this will erase everything and then write over it making it impossible to retrieve compared to formatting which is easy to get around

5. forcrynoutloud says:

   April 23, 2011 at 2:21 am

   Format the drive

6. Dominic H says:

   April 23, 2011 at 2:21 am

   The easiest way would be to use the restore CD or partition that came with the PC. It’ll overwrite everything and return the PC to back when it was first new. The manual for the PC should have the instructions for doing a restore. If you don’t have the manual you could probably find it online at the manufacturer’s website. Search the support section with your computers model number to find the downloads section.

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