Securely wipe your hard drive before donating or recycling an old PC

Always make sure to perform a factory reset before you dispose of used personal electronics. For added security, you should securely erase hard drives, too. This may be required by your employer’s tech policy, so make sure to work closely with the IT department to meet their security protocol. For many uses, free and open-source options like Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) may be sufficient.