How to Whitewash a Computer

Make sure your computer is clean before it's gone.

Leaving personal files on a computer no longer in your possession is extremely dangerous as it puts both your privacy and your identity at risk. "Whitewashing," or wiping your computer clean before it leaves your possession, is an important step before selling, donating or discarding. Using an external hard drive and a few wiping programs, whitewash your computer to return it to its original factory settings and remove all personal information and files.

Instructions

1. Connect an external hard drive to your computer and move any personal files that you want to keep onto the drive. It's helpful to move the files while maintaining the current folder structure you have on your computer, since they'll be easier to locate when you're ready to access them on a new computer. This is also an opportune time to delete unwanted files.

2. Click the Windows icon on your desktop, then select "Control Panel" and "Programs and Features." Move down the list and remove any programs that were installed after you purchased your computer. Keep any software that came with the computer for which you do not have a driver or registration key. For instance, if your computer came with Microsoft Office and you don't have a CD driver, you could be deleting your license by removing the program.

3. Visit "Control Panel" once again and choose "User Account." Click "Manage Account" and then "Create New Account." Create a new administrative account with a general name, such as "admin," and then sign out of your account. Sign in as the admin, go back into the "User Account" interface and delete your original account from the computer.

4. Search through all of your drives manually to delete all files, folders and other information that you want removed from the computer. Remember to empty the Recycle Bin as files left there can be restored.

5. Run a hard drive scrubber only if you want to remove all files, including the computer's operating system. A scrubber such as Active@KillDisk removes all files and folders to start the computer from scratch, which works well if you're trashing or donating the computer as hardware. If selling the computer with the operating system, avoid scrubber programs and rely on manual deletion or a selective scrubber, such as Eraser, which allows you to whitewash drives selectively.

6. Take your computer to a computer technician to ensure all of your information has been removed. For a fee, a technician can look through your computer's drives and directories to ensure that all of your information is gone and your computer is safe to sell, donate or trash.

References

• PC World: Remove Sensitive Data Before You Sell an Old PC
• Microsoft: Clean the Hard Drive Before Dumping Your PC

Resources

• Active @ KillDisk
• Eraser