When people are upgrading their computer, they tend to sell or otherwise donate it. You will receive additional money that will boost you in upgrading. If you are not careful when you are selling your computer; your data is likely to leak. Preparing your laptop is vital to ensure that you do not give your personal information to the strangers.
Ensure that you have backed-up all the essential data. Copy and paste to the external drive- the method is suitable when you are only storing few GB. However, the copy-pasting way is not ideal when you are dealing with a massive amount of data. Cloning the partition that has the sensitive data will provide you with a solution. On the web, there are many cloning software than will significantly assist you in backing up your confidential information. The beauty of the cloning software is that you save not only the data on the hard drive but also the browser passwords.
The next and the most crucial step to erase every data on your computer. Mere deleting and clearing the recycle bin is not enough. However, there is a lot of data stored on your hard drive that may not be visible to the operating system. If the computer lands on the wrong hands, they can access your data. The recovery programs that are available on the internet are very many. Some computer professional can access the information even without using a software.
You can erase data from your computer using numerous ways. A lot of OS has an inbuilt data wiping programs. To wipe your computer, go to the setting, and click on the resenting option. The option can also be accessed when you are reinstalling the windows. The data wiping software available on the market are more effective than the one provided by the operating system. White Canyon, for instance, uses DOD 5220.22-m method to wipe the data. The technique involves overwriting zeros and ones on different location of the disk in a random manner. Verification will then be done to ensure that the original data that was on the hard disk is unreadable.
Start cleaning the machine once you have wiped all the data. Statrt by turning it off and removing the battery. The cloth that you use should be linen free and must be short. If the water cannot get the work done, mix vinegar and water. All the dirt can be removed by the use of a hair drier.
No DVDs or other removable media should be in your laptop. Many people tend to leave disks on their PC for quite sometimes. Since the thumb USB are very small to notice, make sure that you have removed them.