How to prepare pc for a next life?

scorpionxedos

I've got a couple of old pc's that I will be donating to the local council recycling site.

I would like them to still be useful, but with non of my id on it. Stripping it back to basics.

Is there a free program that does that? Or what is your advice?

Thanks guys.

rmg1

Restore to factory settings (if that's available) is a good start (you'll need to do a lot of updates though).
You can then run CCleaner and tick the "wipe free space" option to get rid of everything else.

JasX

Take the hard drives out and keep them?

googler

JasX wrote: »

Take the hard drives out and keep them?

Indeed. Do this.

bondy01

JasX wrote: »

Take the hard drives out and keep them?

Yes I will be doing this with one I have to get rid of. Then it will be a large sledgehammer to the HDD unless it is a reasonable size.

scorpionxedos

Thanks guys.

poppellerant

I know of people who run drive wiping software (such as DBAN) to wipe the harddrive, before removing the harddrive and keeping it forever.

Myself, I'd just run DBAN on the machine.

cookie365

What's to be gained by smashing up a perfectly serviceable hard drive?

There are plenty of ways to completely overwrite and wipe data.

Here's a selection:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-hard-disk-cleaning-and-erasing-tools/

closed

if it's going to the tip, they are unlikely to be recycled as a working machine - just take the drives out (and if they are big enough use them for backup in a usb caddy)

if they are less than 6 years old, you could follow post 2, and sell them on.