When it finally comes time to retire an old laptop, it can feel like saying goodbye to an old friend. Unfortunately, this old friend has all your passwords and personal information in their head… and unless you make them forget, they might expose them to others. Before you sell, recycle, donate, or trash that laptop, you’re going to want to take a few simple steps to wipe all your data and protect yourself.
Before we get started, though, I need to get one PSA out of the way: always back up your data! If you have important files on your laptop, copy them elsewhere before reading on. You should also make note of any serial keys you might have, especially for your operating system. If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry — you can use simple backup software that’ll handle most of it for you.
Once you’ve done that, move on to the steps below to ensure no one will reasonably be able to …