Should you purge your computer before you sell it, to get rid of personal info?
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
United States
November 26, 2007 6:13pm CST
How do you delete all the personal information on your computer before you sell it? Do you simply delete the files? Does that really get rid of all the personal confidential information?
My last few computers have literally died on me. I guess I'm lucky in a way. If any of them had survived, I might have been tempted to sell them. And, considering all the personal information that I keep on my computer, I'm not sure that would be safe.
I have files storing my paypal password, bank account information and more. All on my computer. So, I guess it wouldn't be safe to let that kind of information get into a strangers hands. What do you think? Is there a safe way to delete personal info on a computer before you sell it or give it away?
3 people like this
6 responses
@computerpro (17)
• Philippines
1 Dec 07
Hi All! This is my tenth post in mylot discussions, and here goes . . .
It is a good idea to delete EVERYTHING on your old computer you are planning to sell. That way, any sensitive information will be lost and cannot be used against you. Consider it as the equivalent of paper shredding. . . . All those valuable and sensitive information shouldn't be accessible by anyone except you. Back in our office, we do data scrubs on the hard drives of obsolete computers that's gonna be donated to charity. We have to make sure that the data never gets recovered or read by 3rd party users. And I think you should consider the same.
@vaibhavsawke (820)
• India
27 Nov 07
it is better to do the hardware level formatting or resetting of ur harddisk and its better not to give away
ur harddisk while selling ur PC, keep us old harddisk with u and in place give a new harddisk to the buyer.
@Shaun72 (15959)
• Palatka, Florida
27 Nov 07
I am not sure if I would want to sell mine either. I mean having like paypal on here and also keeping other personal things on mine. i understand how very important and dangerous it could be if someone else got this information.
@morgandrake (2136)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I have Window Washer on my computer, and with it you can create a disc to wipe and "bleach" a hard drive. The bleaching process rewrites the data in random bits, so that it is not recoverable. And you can set it to do numerous passes, increasing the hardiness for anyone trying to recover the data. It is what I recommend doing, considering how much of our lives end up in our computers these days.
@Phatmatt (40)
•
27 Nov 07
Just do a reformatting on the computer, sure there is still ways of getting those files but you need special tools to do it and besides most people who are willing to buy your computer won't try and "recover" and of those files..
@StashCompInc (63)
• Sweden
7 Dec 07
yes i would if i sold my computer since a lot of private information is stored on it
