How to Securely Erase Hard Drive Before Recycling

1. H A R D D R I V E R E C Y C L I N G H o w t o S e c u r e l y E r a s e H a r d D r i v e B e f o r e R e c y c l i n g P R E P A R E D B Y F R E J A M E Z A

2. H A R D D R I V E R E C Y C L I N G H O W T O S E C U R E L Y E R A S E H A R D D R I V E B E F O R E R E C Y C L I N G How to securely wipe hard drive before recycling. Using this program opens a window similar to the one above where you can enter your Windows 10 product key, select your language, local time, password, and leave other settings as they are to match your environment. Once you are finished, click on “Finish” and the file will be deleted. how to securely erase hard drive before recycling. As mentioned previously, all data on your hard drive can be compromised before leaving your local landfill. In order to ensure maximum security, take only plastic bags or boxes to recycle and dispose of your hard drive. Once your hard drive is completely removed from your computer and disposed of, take your computer and any remaining data off the computer and seal it in a new box. You can even use a big compressor to crush your hard drive and recycle it at a recycler's facility. After shredding your hard drive to a smaller size, compressed air will do the job. If the hard drive contains personal information, you should take special care when wiping your hard drive. The best way to eliminate duplicate access to the personal data on a hard drive is a data wipe. When using a data wiping program to wipe your hard drive, you should do it at the end of your session or when you’ve completed the maximum number of passes for that particular software. Some hard drive data wiping programs are not compatible with macOS Catalina and will not wipe all data. More importantly, if your computer’s hard drive contains user data that resides on a controller, such as the hard drive’s firmware, you should also perform a full system update. Are you ready to wipe your personal data? The best way to minimize the risk of your personal data being taken or shared by a data thief after you donate or recycle your computer is to completely wipe or reformat your hard drive. P R E P A R E D B Y F R E J A M E Z A

3. H A R D D R I V E R E C Y C L I N G H O W T O S E C U R E L Y E R A S E H A R D D R I V E B E F O R E R E C Y C L I N G Are you ready to wipe your personal data? The best way to minimize the risk of your personal data being taken or shared by a data thief after you donate or recycle your computer is to completely wipe or reformat your hard drive. If you can’t find or afford a data wiping program, here are some digital data recovery options to consider. If the data loss or theft is due to a system failure and your system contains personal data, you can begin the data recovery process by retrieving the data using a physical hard drive or memory card. When you wipe your hard drive at the end of the session with a data wiping program, you run the risk of inadvertently overwriting data on the hard drive. To correctly use a data recovery program to recover your data, you need to know exactly how they work. Generally, data recovery software programs send a methodical process of file and sometimes file-level data extraction to your computer. When a file or folder on your hard drive is referred to as a “backup,” it is an indication that the data trove has been temporarily stored in a protected place. Data recovery programs are able to extract additional data from the file once it is opened to view. If you would like to retrieve all of the files and folders on your hard drive, find them all in the Windows folder in the Finder. If your hard drive contains music, photos or screenshots, you should use programs such as PhotoRec for proper photo and video recovery. To open the file explorer, click the three-dot menu in the upper left of your Mac screen. Select Go To Folder and search for the location of your documents, photos, music, or videos. If there is a lot of data, it will take a minute or more to open. W W W . E U R O - R E C Y C L I N G . C O . U K