Before you sell an old computer, laptop or tablet watch this.

[Gromett]

I had presumed people knew this stuff as it was common sense to me. But apparently even a person in the trade made this serious error.

Even if you aren't selling, watch this for entertainment and education .

 

[Duck Truck]

Interesting, when I get a new pc
I log out my old one with a hammer and chisel

 

[Larrynwin]

Interesting. I have half a dozen old PCs and never sell them on. On some I have removed hard drive and use for storage.

 

[HandyAndy]

i don't think i have have ever sold a pc, they are in boxes in the attic, used as spares when something fails on the new one (if it's compatible) I had so much spare parts junk I managed to build another pc in the attic just to act as a server ?
Although dropbox has taken place of that now and I just have a pile of hard drives stacked up ?

 

[34127]

I thought it was normal practice to smash up any old pc's rather than sell them on.

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[HandyAndy]

I thought it was normal practice to smash up any old pc's rather than sell them on.

One gaming rig I built got that treatment after it bsod just once too many times. Shame really as it wasn't cheap and looked quite good. Damn my anger management ?

 

[Kannon Fodda]

There are plenty of eraser type buts of software out there which will completely scrub the entire hard drive - overwrites every bit of space with junk in a couple or more passes (takes a looooong time on a large drive). Afterwards no chance anything is ever going to get recovered. If you then want to sell as a working PC just reload the operating system, without logging it in.

 

[Guigsy]

I've sold a few PCs. I use a hard drive data shredder to wipe every bit from my drives before re-installing Windows.... although I'm not sure how effective data shredders are with SSDs?

 

[movan]

I have an ASUS and a Blackberry.

The shop that has offered to buy them from me has said they will delete everything back to new.. .

Should I not trust them either?

 

[Duck Truck]

Movan Put your trust in

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