How to erase everything on my PC?

first78

I'm getting rid of my desktop as it's old, knackered and taking up too much room! What I want to know is, is it possible to erase all the photos, docs and info that I have stored on there? Would like to sell it even if it's just for parts but don't want anyone having access to photos and other personal stuff I have on there. Thanks.

vuvuzela

first78 wrote: »

I'm getting rid of my desktop as it's old, knackered and taking up too much room! What I want to know is, is it possible to erase all the photos, docs and info that I have stored on there? Would like to sell it even if it's just for parts but don't want anyone having access to photos and other personal stuff I have on there. Thanks.

If I was worried about security of personal info, I'd take out the hard drive and smash it. That will be quick and easy.

Browntoa

Large hammer , smash hard drive

Or use DBan software

first78

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I do I find the hard drive?

googler

first78 wrote: »

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I do I find the hard drive?

There's YT videos and visual guides all over the web that will help with this.

You can take the hard drive out and just keep it. There's NO NEED to smash it up, as suggested above. Take it out, keep it in a cupboard or a drawer, or maybe keep it as a backup of the data that was on the machine when you got rid of.

agrinnall

I've never bothered to smash up old hard drives, eventually the data on them becomes so out of date that I just take them to the recycling centre.

grumpycrab

Take it out and use as backup or archive OR erase it with DBAN (an ISO which you burn to CD/DVD; quick erase is quickest option).

GunJack

way OTT, smashing a good hdd. Delete all your stuff, then run CCleaner's Wipe Free Space option a couple of times, should be plenty sufficient. The pc will have a higher resale value in a working state with an OS installed & running....

ARandomMiser

Use axcrypt (or similar) to shred any documents, photos etc. And then use ccleaner or similar to delete other stuff. That may be enough depending on what you are doing with the computer.

If necessary you could run a deep low level format and repartition.

kwikbreaks

Just uninstall your AV and open one of those "invoice" attachments from an unknown source. Quickest and easiest way to make all your data inaccessible.

henm2

Just use DBAN booted off a small flash drive. Download DBAN https://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/ and use Rufus https://rufus.akeo.ie/ to put it on your drive.