How to Safely Prepare Your Computer for Sale or Donation

How to Safely Prepare Your Computer for Sale or Donation.

Laptop Factory Reset (follows similar procedure to this tutorial): youtube.com/watch?v=pctiQlFNN4k
Complete Wipe Video: youtube.com/watch?v=Vf6q4Cy1Scc

Many families have welcomed new PCs into their homes, thanks to back-to-school and Labor Day sales, leaving older computers to be donated, recycled, or sold. That makes this a good time to learn how to perform a factory reset.

What is a factory reset? That's when you wipe your computer's hard drive and reinstall its operating system. Doing this reverts your computer to its pristine state, deleting all your personal information, applications, and files in the process.

Getting rid of a computer without performing a reset could put your data in the wrong hands—and you and your family at risk for identity theft.

If you're planning to sell your old computer because you're moving to a new system, or you're trying to make some extra cash to afford a more premium device (such as the Dell XPS 13, Surface Laptop 2, or Huawei MateBook X Pro, preparing the old hardware is a necessary process to prevent giving away your personal information to a stranger. You'll also need to make sure the device is working correctly to get the most money while avoiding problems with the buyer.

When preparing a device, there are three main steps you want to do for a successful sale. The first step involves creating a backup, so you don't lose your files. 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 resolve performance and other potential issues. And the third and final step involves deciding how to sell the old computer, and crafting a good product listing if you choose to go with an online service.

In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to prepare for selling your desktop, laptop, or tablet without compromising your personal information, or giving away costly software.

Before you give away a computer, you should make sure that your most private, sensitive files are irretrievable. You don't want them to fall into the wrong hands.

But that's not all. You should also return the hard drive to its factory condition, so that the new owner can set it up as they choose.

Let's discuss both topics.

Securely wipe sensitive files

If a file contains information that you'd rather not fall into criminal hands (or government hands), merely deleting that file isn't sufficient--even if you empty the recycle bin. Deleted files can be restored with simple, free software.

Instead, you should wipe those files--overwriting them with new, meaningless data. As a general rule, the more times the file's former location on the drive surface is overwritten, the more secure the wipe.

This tutorial will apply for computers, laptops, desktops,and tablets running the Windows 10 operating system (Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education) from all supported hardware manufactures, like Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Toshiba,Lenovo, and Samsung).