Wiping Your Drive: A Guide to Erasing Personal Data

Hey everybody, I'm Pad Ignored from Tech Thing and I'm here on Digital Trends today to help you wipe the data off your drive so nobody else ever gets a hold of it. Now, if you're getting rid of your old laptop or desktop, it doesn't matter if you're selling it, donating it to a charity, you're gifting it to a friend or family member - you should wipe the drive before you give it away seriously get that Drive! It contains your personal information like family photos, financial data, browsing records, and history. Hey, if you use it for work, could be some secret data from work, whatever you leave on the drive it's just gonna go to the next person that uses it unless you wipe or destroy the drive first.

Dragging the files to the recycle bin does not count as wiping them or deleting them unless you've souped up your recycle bin with a tool like Eraser that wipes them by writing random data over them over and over. It's usually just dragging the files to the recycle bin and emptying it - kinda like taking the card catalog out of the library, there's still a big room full of books it might be hard to find but somebody knows how to look for them. We'll find your files now if you want to be utterly totally sure your data doesn't go with your machine get your trusty Phillips screwdriver out and remove it - you can use it as a backup drive, but don't just throw it in the garbage or the e-cycle box at your local recycler why cuz that info is still there and people can look at it.

So how do you get rid of that data if you're the Handy type? You can pull the platters - the actual disks with the zeros and ones that make up your data are stored on - and sand the surface of them or hammer them until they look all dimpled and craters, little crazy. Some folks just drill holes in the drive there are companies that will professionally shred the drive for you while you watch - think Will it blend but with a much bigger blender with a lot more torque now important safety tip: back up the files or data you want off that machine before you wipe or destroy the drive once that data is gone it is gone and it would suck the wipe out your only copy of the baby photos or last year's tykes files because you weren't paying attention.

OS10 users are lucky - the Disk Utility can wipe a disk so are Windows 10 users go to settings, update, and security reset this PC and remove everything if there's an option in there like erase data thoroughly your files would pretty much be gone but a fresh copy of Windows will be there. Stet Windows 8 has a similar feature - by the way, if you're running an older Windows PC you want total scorched-earth on your drive - you'll need a program like DBAN Eric's Boot and Nuke not the simplest thing to use you have to make a bootable CD or use their Blanco tool to create a bootable USB Drive to load it but if you follow the directions, you could overwrite the data on the drive to a ridiculous degree like days of erasing over and over again.

You can download De Bona Dea org and remember - just get the data you need off the drive first. People I'm Patrick Norton for Digital Trends - thank you so much for watching have fun erasing your drives

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody I'm pad ignored from tech thing and I'm here on digital trends today to help you wipe the data off you drive so nobody else ever gets ahold of it now if you're getting rid of your old laptop or desktop it doesn't matter if you're selling it donating it to a charity you're gifting it to a friend or family member you should wipe the drive before you give it away seriously get that Drive it contains your personal information like family photos financial data you're browsing records your history hey if you use it for work could be some secret data from work whatever you leave on the drive it's just gonna go to the next person that uses it unless you wipe or destroy the drive first dragging the files to the recycle bin does not count as wiping them or deleting them unless you've souped up your recycle bin with a tool like eraser that wipes them by writing random data over them over and over it's usually just dragging the files to the recycle bin and emptying it's kinda like taking the card catalog out of the library there's still a big room full of books it might be hard to find but somebody knows how to look for them we'll find your files now if you want to be utterly totally sure your data doesn't go with your machine get your trusty Phillips screwdriver out and remove it you can use it as a backup drive but don't just throw it in the garbage or the e-cycle box at your local recycler why cuz that info is still there and people can look at it so how do you get rid of that data if you're the Handy type you can pull the platters the actual disks with the zeros and ones that make up your data are stored on and sand the surface of them or hammer them until they look all dimpled and craters little crazy some folks just drill holes in the drive there are companies that will professionally shred the drive for you while you watch think will it blend but with a much bigger blender with a lot more torque now important safety tip back up the files or data you want off that machine before you wipe or destroy the drive once that data is gone it is gone and it would suck the wipe out your only copy of the baby photos or last year's tykes files because you weren't paying attention they got all crazy with a screwdriver os10 users are lucky the Disk Utility can wipe a disk so are Windows 10 users go to settings update and security reset this PC and remove everything if there's an option in there like erase data thoroughly your files would pretty much be gone but a fresh copy of Windows will be there stet Windows 8 has a similar feature and by the way if you're running an older Windows PC you want total scorched-earth on your drive you'll need a program like dban Eric's boot and nuke not the simplest thing to use you have to make a bootable CD or use their blanco tool to create a bootable USB Drive to load it but if you follow the directions you could overwrite the data on the drive to a ridiculous degree like days of erasing over and over again you can download de Bona Dea org and remember just get the data you need off the drive first people I'm Patrick Norton for Digital Trends thank you so much for watching have fun erasing your driveshey everybody I'm pad ignored from tech thing and I'm here on digital trends today to help you wipe the data off you drive so nobody else ever gets ahold of it now if you're getting rid of your old laptop or desktop it doesn't matter if you're selling it donating it to a charity you're gifting it to a friend or family member you should wipe the drive before you give it away seriously get that Drive it contains your personal information like family photos financial data you're browsing records your history hey if you use it for work could be some secret data from work whatever you leave on the drive it's just gonna go to the next person that uses it unless you wipe or destroy the drive first dragging the files to the recycle bin does not count as wiping them or deleting them unless you've souped up your recycle bin with a tool like eraser that wipes them by writing random data over them over and over it's usually just dragging the files to the recycle bin and emptying it's kinda like taking the card catalog out of the library there's still a big room full of books it might be hard to find but somebody knows how to look for them we'll find your files now if you want to be utterly totally sure your data doesn't go with your machine get your trusty Phillips screwdriver out and remove it you can use it as a backup drive but don't just throw it in the garbage or the e-cycle box at your local recycler why cuz that info is still there and people can look at it so how do you get rid of that data if you're the Handy type you can pull the platters the actual disks with the zeros and ones that make up your data are stored on and sand the surface of them or hammer them until they look all dimpled and craters little crazy some folks just drill holes in the drive there are companies that will professionally shred the drive for you while you watch think will it blend but with a much bigger blender with a lot more torque now important safety tip back up the files or data you want off that machine before you wipe or destroy the drive once that data is gone it is gone and it would suck the wipe out your only copy of the baby photos or last year's tykes files because you weren't paying attention they got all crazy with a screwdriver os10 users are lucky the Disk Utility can wipe a disk so are Windows 10 users go to settings update and security reset this PC and remove everything if there's an option in there like erase data thoroughly your files would pretty much be gone but a fresh copy of Windows will be there stet Windows 8 has a similar feature and by the way if you're running an older Windows PC you want total scorched-earth on your drive you'll need a program like dban Eric's boot and nuke not the simplest thing to use you have to make a bootable CD or use their blanco tool to create a bootable USB Drive to load it but if you follow the directions you could overwrite the data on the drive to a ridiculous degree like days of erasing over and over again you can download de Bona Dea org and remember just get the data you need off the drive first people I'm Patrick Norton for Digital Trends thank you so much for watching have fun erasing your drives\n"