How to completely wipe your old computer’s hard drive

The only snag you have is wiping your hard drive. You know a wipe will prevent future users from stumbling over your old files and data—but you have no idea how to do it. Good news: The task is more daunting in your head than in reality. Let’s walk your through your options for sending your computer off to new horizons with a fresh, clean hard drive.

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Wiping a hard drive: Deleting files is not enough

To erase files from your computer, you can’t just trash all your documents in the recycle bin. The recycle bin does nothing to erase discarded data; if the data remains on your hard drive, albeit buried, a tech savvy person can recover the data to access your private information. The recycle bin assists with organization and the unexpected, ill-timed computer crash, but it does not help when you really need that data to disappear.

So, what do you do? Option one is to swap out drives, particularly if you’re attempting to upgrade from an older-style hard disk drive to solid state drive technology as you recycle your hardware. This way, you can save the data already on your old drive and put it in a different compatible machine later. However, this option involves time, money, tools, and advanced skills. Option two is to completely wipe your hard drive to erase your data. Of the two, this is the simpler and more cost-effective option. Here’s how to do it.

Erasing your hard drive

1. Back up data you actually want to keep. Copy your info to an external hard drive, cloud storage, different device, or a USB drive. Remember, your goal is to never see this data on this particular computer ever again, so take time to guarantee you’ve got a copy. Even if you’re holding onto the computer and plan to reload the same data back on board after your reset, you’re likely resetting to clear out some major issue, and you don’t want remnants of old data to interfere.
2. Find the built-in wipe features within your operating system, or OS, with easy-to-follow steps. Steps vary slightly for different operating systems, so check yours first. For Windows 10 and 11, start with the recovery drive or disk management options.
   • For the recovery drive approach, simply move everything to an external drive and then the original drive will wipe after that.
   • Disk management helps you format a drive, which in essence, prepares it for new files and documents while leaving no trace of the old. This route ensures you’ve fully formatted. There’s a slight chance that if you didn’t fully format the drive, a dedicated computer sleuth could figure out how to get your data back, but it’s unlikely.
   • Conveniently, both Windows 10 and 11 have a Reset PC option that will ask you if you want to remove everything and clean data. Select yes for both options.
3. For extra help, research third party software tools, some free, some paid, that can accomplish the wipe for you. Check what kind of hard drive you have—hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state (SSD)—to determine which one will work best.

If all else fails and you’re truly frustrated or short on time, visit your local computer store for assistance from an expert. If you don’t mind spending the money, this may be the most stress-free solution.

If you get help from a trusted, computer-savvy friend, request to watch them do the wipe in person. That way you can make sure they don’t miss backing up data you want them to save, and make sure they’re not secretly siphoning off your files. They could even teach you how to wipe a computer throughout the process so you can do it on your own next time.

All done? Congratulations. That freshly clean drive sets you up for secondhand computer success.