How to securely wipe a Windows PC – Computerworld


Want more PC advice? My free Windows Intelligence newsletter delivers the best Windows tips straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get free Windows Field Guides as a special welcome bonus!

Securely wiping Windows: First considerations

When you (or your organization) are done with a PC, you have several options for the device’s future. You can recycle or sell it, ensuring it’s useful to someone else in the future. There are obvious environmental benefits here — and financial benefits, too, if you can sell the PC or donate it for a tax deduction. But there are risks, too.

Organizations that demand high data security often destroy computers or their storage devices, taking them out of commission. If an organization has a PC holding “the nuclear launch codes,” it’s clearly a better idea to destroy it than repurpose it. That’s an extreme example, but it proves the point: If the CEO of a large company has a PC with sensitive trade secrets on it, that organization will almost certainly want to physically destroy the computer rather than risk the data somehow being recoverable and falling into the wrong hands.


Source link
Exit mobile version