We all end up in that situation where you have an old laptop or computer that you no longer use, and consider selling it to make a little extra. The vast majority of the public who sell their devices do not adequately erase their information, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft or extortion.
But I Deleted Everything. When you press or click that delete key to get rid of those photos or files before you sell your device- those files aren't actually removed from the storage of the device (hard drive/solid state drive etc). Simply put- you are only deleting the link to that file or photo, and its been marked as free space to be re-used when the PC or laptop requires more storage. The file still exists and there are many types of software out there that allow you, or someone else, to recover this information. But I Reinstalled Windows. Even going as far as to completely reinstalling Windows (or MacOS) on a PC or laptop will not erase all the files on the storage device. Again it will just mark all the old files as free space, to be overwritten as and when its required- often not being overwritten for days, months or years. There has been times where a laptop or a PC has had multiple previous owners, all with files vulnerable to recovery if it were to fall into nefarious hands. How Do I Delete My Files Securely? If you want to make sure that your old files and photos cannot be recovered from the disk drive, the most common method is to take a hammer to it. Not so helpful when you want to sell your PC or laptop in a working condition however. There are many programs out there that can securely erase the files on your disk drive by writing over all of them with useless information, and then deleting that- referred to as one "pass". The more times you overwrite and delete the data on the disk drive, the harder it would be to recover. The US Department of Defence only recommends 3 passes for most instances. Lifewire has complied a nice list of Data Destruction Programs you can try here. Can Spartan Help? We offer a secure 3 pass data wipe service of all disk drives. Typically costing as little as £25 per disk. If you are unsure on if your information is at risk, feel free to get in touch and we can help look at options. We can also offer a destroy and dispose service for disk drives that are no longer required.