To All the Tech Buffs out There, Could You Please Help/advise Me?
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My son gave me a tiny little desk top computer a long time ago but I still have my old huge tower pc. I also have a small note book (like a mini laptop) and about 3 old phones lurking in draws.
I want to get rid of them but am paranoid about my personal info being found/used by anyone if I sell on or just dispose of. I know you can go back to factory settings on some tech (dont know how) but have heard it is still possible for clever people to get stuff off them. I am not really expecting to sell although phones may be worth it, but dont know what to do for the best. How does everyone else get rid of old tech safely?
Factory reset is normally enough I would of thought but if its a pc you could delete your data then use a utility like glary utilities and use the file shredder feature and select erase free space before then resetting windows for its new owner. I must admit I never create an account on windows and never use Edge which is too integrated into the operating system. So Windows doesn't know who I am and therefore difficult to sell my data. I just install chrome and sign into that which I can later uninstall. I then erase free space etc. Glary Utilities is so useful for so many tasks.
BonzoBanana thank you so much for replying. I will come to that fresh in the morning as even that will take some figuring out for a numbskull like me!
BonzoBanana That works, too.
Was gonna suggest a Linux Live USB which can format an HDD/SSD among other features.
Laptop's I take the hard drive out and smash it up into pieces, I don't sell my used phones, they are either in a draw as spares or given to family members
martinlufc5637 Why would you smash up a laptop HD when you can use It as an external HD. You can get an external HD 2.5 enclosure for less than £4. You pop In your laptop HD and erase your contents via your PC. Its good to go then for storage. I use mine for storing films, then I connect It to my USB on my TV and watch films. Its plug & play too. You get the cables as well with the enclosure. Its just the same as owning a USB Stick.
Emerge11 I would just completely wipe the hard drive using a slow format that completely writes over all data and then reinstall a fresh copy of windows if I was worried about my data. You can get similar utils for android phones where you can completely delete/erase the flash memory.
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