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Getting Rid of a Computer?

Wipe Your Hard Drive to Protect Personal Information

We recently received member feedback asking us what you should do to protect your information when you need to recycle or donate a computer. There is an important step you should take to protect your personal information. Run a disk wiping program that you can download from the Internet—simply putting items in your trash or recycle folder is not enough to eliminate your personal information. This program writes meaningless data to the drive. Information wiped includes your Internet's browser cache, cookies and history, your email contacts and messages, your recycle or trash folder and any non-transferable software.

Disk Cleaning Options

For Purchase Windows Disk Cleaning Software

Blancco Data Erasure Software - blancco.com
WipeDrive - whitecanyon.com/erase-file-index.php

Free Windows Disk Cleaning Software

Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser - killdisk.com/
Darik's Boot and Nuke - dban.org

Macintosh Disk Cleaning Software

Disk Utility (built-in in Mac OS X, under "Security Options")
WipeDrive for Mac - whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php

Computer Donation

Once you have successfully wiped your hard drive, there are several options for computer donation and recycling.

Goodwill. Visit reconnectpartnership.com to learn what is accepted and at what locations. Computers are either reused, used for parts or are recycled. Revenues from the sale of donations help Goodwill provide job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people with disabilities.

Visit your city's website. There you'll learn what is accepted, if there is a cost and drop-off locations. Cities often hold special collections as well. You can also visit epa.gov for additional recycling programs including local, manufacturer and retail programs and government-supported donation and recycling programs. Techsoup.org also has listings of area refurbishers that donate to local non-profit groups.

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