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How do I completely wipe my desktop?
I haven't time to search all of the questions already asked as I am about to leave for work and would like to accomplish this today as soon as I get home. Hoping for answers by then.
I have an incredibly old desktop computer (read: approximately 15 years old) that I am looking to donate or otherwise get rid of completely. However, there is quite a bit of personal information on the hard drive that I wouldn't be comfortable if any future owner were to find. There's nothing on the computer I want to keep. It simply takes up too much room and hasn't been used in years. I've been told I can donate it to a homeless shelter which is what I'd like to do.
If the answer is going in and manually deleting all files I guess that's what I'll do. I'm hoping to avoid this though, because I fear they will still be salvageable and/or this process will take hours.
2 Answers
- Anonymous8 years agoFavourite answer
I agree with n/a. Replace the hard drive. It's unlikely someone will try to get information, however, it's possible. It's much much much safer to just put a new one in than to trust a stranger with a hard drive. It doesn't matter if you delete the files. You can reformat the drive and I would still have the ability to recover personal information.