![]() On PC: Press the Windows key + R to open the run box. □ How to Tell If You Have a Solid-State Drive It essentially shreds up your hard drive until it’s in no way recoverable. ![]() Instead, you should physically destroy the device with something like the SSMD-2MM Solid State Media Disintegrator, which is something professional data destruction companies should have. To destroy a solid-state drive, you can’t use a degausser, because there’s no magnetic storage. Rather, solid state drives have an embedded processor, “its brain,” and interconnected memory chips that retain data. This kind of drive also doesn’t have magnetic coatings like a hard drive disc. Information is stored on microchips and contains no moving platters. These contain the microchips you may picture inside of your phone against a green circuit board.Ī solid-state drive is essentially a larger and more sophisticated version of a flash drive. While there’s a pretty decent chance the old computer you want to nix has a hard drive disc (as it’s an older, slower form of data storage), newer computers are fast adopting a new standard called a solid-state drive, or SSD. Hackers have recovered laptops thrown into bodies of water and dug data out of the hard drive afterward. Acid doesn’t seep deeply enough inside the discs to ensure complete destruction. Microwaves often don’t get hot enough to properly wipe the platters. These methods might sound hardcore, but three of them still aren’t completely reliable. There’s much online debate about the best ways to completely destroy the data inside, but most solutions come down to water, hydrochloric acid, magnets, or a blunt object you can smash them with easily. → The 9 Best Laptops You Can Buy Right Now Ready to Level Up? Check Out Our Top Computer Picks ⬇️ If a hacker uses data forensics tools, they can find bits and pieces of those deleted files in the hard drive storage, making it possible to recover pretty much everything. When you delete data from the computer through a factory reset, the information is hidden from the computer, but is still stored on the hard drive. Electronic components power the whole operation. ![]() Centered on a spindle, the platter rotates and an electronic current reads and writes data onto the surface. Platters are usually ceramic, glass, or aluminum, and work like a record player. The platter stores data onto its circular surface in chunks of 1s and 0s. These are called platters, and they’re the pieces of hardware that actually store all of those cat videos and family photos. Inside your hard drive are two rotating discs that sort of resemble a CD. That opens a Windows Defender Security Center window to the Fresh Start option. Use the Fresh Start option in Windows 10: Settings > Update & Security > Recovery page, Then, click the link text “Learn how to start fresh with a clean installation of Windows” at the bottom.In either case, back up your files in case something goes awry. ![]() The latter, as its name suggests, will delete your files. The former resets your options to default and removes uninstalled apps, like browsers, but keeps your data intact. You can either select Keep My Files or Remove Everything.You should see a title that says “Reset this PC.” Click Get Started. Navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.Wait until the process finishes, then go to the Disk Utility menu > quit.Choose MacOS Extended (Journaled) as the format.Choose the correct startup disc and select erase.You won’t see your usual login page, anymore, but instead will see a “macOS Utilities” window.When the computer shuts off and powers back on, hold Command + R until you see the Apple logo. Restart in Recovery Mode: Click and choose Restart.Make sure your computer is plugged in for the duration of the reset.Make sure you’ve backed up all of your important data in a cloud service.That means you should probably consider hiring an expert to finish the data wiping-especially because the government has certain standards for data sanitation, depending on the field you work in. If you only ever really played games or finished school work on your computer, there’s probably little risk in using a factory reset as your primary form of data wiping.īut if you own a company and complete that work on a computer, you may have employees’ social security numbers on the hard drive, for example.
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