Selling your old laptop? Here are 5 steps to erase every trace of your existence on it

When the time comes to put your beloved old laptop out to pasture (aka listing it on OLX or Quickr), people are likely to strike the most lucrative deal and hand it over post haste. But wait--your laptop, the device you’ve been likely using over years, is a hotbed of personal information and files, which is now changing hands. And those hands may likely belong to a rank stranger.

Before signing over the tool that enabled your digital life, it is hugely important that you spend time not just copying your stuff off of it, but wiping every last bit of traceable information before letting go of it.

It is amazing the lengths some untoward elements will go through to access your personal information; and while users are aware of the most obvious entry points--fraudulent emails and hoax phone calls--it is these ‘under the radar’ areas of old hardware to which vigilance needs to be exercised. Often, more than the cost of a second-hand laptop, the wealth of information that can be recovered from it often outweighs the price of the hardware itself. Confidential bankd details and personal documents, photos of your family, automatic sign-ins into your Google and iOS profiles--all of these areas in which potential hackers and thieves could have a field day with.

So if you want to include the operating system on your laptop, here’s how you obliterate any traces of your personal data on it.

Step 1: Copy, they erase all of your document folders
Most folks store their files in the ‘Documents’ folder equivalent of the OS they are using. Copy all of your data from these folders to an external hard disk or thumb drive, then erase these folders completely (using SHIFT+DEL in Windows, Command+DEL in OSX, SHIFT+DEL in Linux).

Also remember to delete any other folders you may have created for data, such as Downloads, Dump, Temp etc. These may contain files you haven’t used in a while, but which could still hold identifiable data.

Want to be extra sure your files and folders are deleted? Use a permanent file removal program like the excellent freeware app FileShredder. This app doesn’t just remove the reference to the file on the drive (which is what a regular delete operation does), but overwrites the very location of the file with random data, making it virtually impossible to subsequently recover.

Step 2: Clear temp files and uninstall programs, especially paid ones
Almost every program uses some form of a Temporary folder for storing transient files during its regular operation--delete the contents of these folders. In Windows, start the file explorer, right-click C: drive, click Properties, then hit the ‘Disk cleanup’ button. This scans your disk partition and lets you choose what you want to delete, including Temp files, the Recycle bin etc. Check everything and click Ok to proceed with removing these files. Do this for all partitions on your hard disk.

Next, uninstall any programs that you don’t want to include with your laptop sale. Especially remove ones that you have paid for, whose license you can reuse on another computer subsequently.

Step 3: Disconnect automatic sign-ins from all browsers
If you’re using Chrome, you’ll most likely have set it up to automatically sign in to your Google account, and with it the entire Google ecosystem. You’ll need to disconnect this account to prevent it from being used on the laptop in future. Do this by clicking the burger icon in Chrome in the upper right corner, click Settings, then click Disconnect your Google Account at the top. Check the box to remove all local data before confirming.

With Chrome, Firefox or IE, launch the browser then press CTRL+SHIFT+DEL. You’ll see a popup that enables you to clear cache, passwords, autofill settings and the like. Check everything and proceed. This erases past browsing data and automatic sign-ins from the browser.

Step 4: Uninstall Google Drive/Dropbox and its local folder
If you’re using Google Drive or Dropbox, ensure that their local sync folder is erased before uninstalling these programs.

Step 5: Disconnect your favourite Wi-Fi networks and remove them from the system
Your laptop will most likely be configured to automatically hook on to your home and office networks, so it’s a good idea to delete these networks from your system. In Windows, open the Wireless Network configuration, right-click each recognized wireless network, then select Remove. Continue to do so for all private networks that you will have logged into from the system.

That’s it--your laptop should now be properly ‘sterilized’ before it heads into the wild.

Of course, if you want to go the whole hog and erase the laptop’s hard disk itself--and with it all files, partitions and everything--it’s best to use one of these free data shredders. They load up before the OS starts and completely wipe data from the target drives. Of course, use this approach with extreme caution as all drive data will get permanently blitzed.