Thursday 20 April 2006

How to Securely Erase Your Devices

It is not uncommon for most of us to switch out our cell phones every 2 years and the rest of our electronic devices as soon as newer models are available. Having the newest and best on the market is a way to stay up to date with the current trends and to have the fastest functioning device. However, when we trade in or sell our old devices it is imperative to make sure they are fully wiped. Wiping involves securely erasing everything on the electronic so that the new owner will not be able to access any of your personal and private information. While doing this may sound common sense it is a step that often gets overlooked in the excitement of procuring our new gadget. Wiping the drives can be easier and quicker than you think.

Wiping an External Drive on Windows

Wiping an external drive on Windows is fairly simple. The easiest and quickest option is to select one of the many free drive-wiping tools available. You can choose to use one of the many free drive-wiping tools that are available. All you'll have to do is insert your USB drive, or plug in any other external hard drive you may have and then follow the program.

Wiping a Laptop, Desktop, or other Internal Hard Drive

When it comes to wiping a computer, it's important to remember that it only needs to be done if you have mechanical or hybrid hard drives. On solid-state drives whenever you delete a file it is automatically removed from the drive so you don't need to be concerned with wiping.

If you do happen to be using a mechanical or hybrid drive then you can use these tricks. On Windows 8 and 8.1 all you have to do is select the "reset your PC" feature and then indicate that you want to securely erase the drive contents. To be on the safe side it is suggested to select the "fully clean the drive" option to make sure that nothing can be recovered later.

On Windows 7, Linux, or any other operating system use a tool like DBAN. This tool will boot up and erase the hard drives and will overwrite them with random pointless data. Keep in mind that in using these tools the next user will need to reinstall the operating system before the computer will be functional.

Wiping Smartphones and Tablets

Smartphones and tablets change hands faster than any other devices so it is important to properly wipe them. The good news is that iPhones and iPads all use encryption which means all that is necessary is to reset the device with the "erase all contents and settings" option.

For an Android phone or tablet a factory reset will not be helpful since they do not encrypt by default. To wipe an Android device you'll need to enter the settings options and select to encrypt the storage. After you done that step you can safely erase the device and then restore the original factory settings.

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