Once that’s done, and you’ve verified that the data has been safely backed up, carrying out a factory reset is simple, whether you’re on a, Mac, Windows PC, or Chromebook. “Just make sure you’re wearing safety glasses.”Īnd before performing a factory reset (or, perhaps, breaking out the hammer and nails), be sure to back up any important data on the computer to another drive or to the cloud. “The gold standard in hard drive security consists of using a pointy nail and a few swift swings of a hammer,” Fisco says half-jokingly. If that’s a significant concern-maybe you’re planning to sell the device to a stranger on eBay-go ahead and remove the hard drive, says Richard Fisco, who oversees electronics testing for Consumer Reports.Īfter all, a hacker can’t break into a hard drive that’s not there. While a factory reset is generally sufficient, a determined hacker could, at least theoretically, use advanced data recovery software to retrieve your old files. Reinstalling your system before sale is a much safer alternative.”

“Or you can miss deleting some important files altogether. “You’re likely to forget things like passwords saved in browsers and personal data in the deleted items folder,” says Matt Ham, owner of the service company Computer Repair Doctor.

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