Many people make the mistake of being confident that their hard drives are completely wiped. To remove all your computer files, you should not just rely on the traditional “Send to Recycle Bin” routine. The problem with this is that it does not guarantee you have deleted all the sensitive files and data in your hard drive. As a matter of fact, anyone who has a data recovery program can recover the files you have removed, even if your Recycle Bin is empty. The good news is there are ways on how you can wipe your computer before you dispose it or sell it.
A Blank Slate State
When you bought your computer, the hard drive is brand new, without any file in it except for the applications that are pre-installed in it. To return to this state, you will need to first back up your data, especially if the files are really important to you. Next is to erase the drive. After deleting everything, you should reformat your drive and finally, reinstall your operating system.
If you have a computer that runs on Windows 7, you should have your copy of your operating system. You may have received this when you bought the computer. However, if you do not have a copy, you can download it online and activate it using your Windows Product Key, which is usually located on a sticker on your computer.
You will now have a bootable version of the operating system. The next step is to erase the hard drive using a third-party program. This is more useful if the program comes as a bootable tool as well. Restart your computer, but ensure the CD, DVD, or USB drive where you have your hard drive eraser is plugged into your PC. You will see some screen prompts, which you need to follow to wipe your computer completely. After the program has finished deleting everything, insert the Windows bootable CD and begin your OS’ installation.
Why You Need to Wipe Your Computer
You should not just leave your computer as is once you have decided you will sell it. Although you think you have deleted all the files in the drive, anyone can still recover those files and may use them against you. It is possible to remove all computer files with the right tool.
Laptops and desktop computers often have a magnetic hard drive. This makes it easy for other people to get data from it even though the files have been sent to the Recycle Bin, which have already been emptied. Note that even though you have deleted your files, reformatted your hard drive, and reinstalled your operating system, your files can still be retrieved. You can solve this issue if the tool you choose has the ability to delete all the sectors of the hard drive.
When you wipe your computer with a capable tool that deletes every sector of the disk, all files will be deleted and the recovery partition created by the manufacturer will be removed as well.
