How Do I Clear My Laptop Before Selling It Windows 10

The research

If you lot have a solid-state drive, start with encryption
Wipe and reset your reckoner
Smartphones and tablets

If you have a solid-country bulldoze, commencement with encryption

If you purchased your figurer in the past few years, it probably has a solid-state drive. SSDs are faster than older, mechanical difficult drives and use flash retention instead of magnetic platters. But the downside of the engineering is that securely deleting files from an SSD is very hard. SSDs apply a technique called wear leveling to prolong life, simply a side issue of this process is that data can remain on a drive fifty-fifty after you've erased it. Instead of using special software to erase an SSD's contents, you lot're better off encrypting the drive, which employs a mathematical procedure to muddle up the information using a passkey that merely y'all accept. Without the fundamental, files on the drive wait like gibberish—even if someone succeeds in recovering files, that person still won't exist able to open them.

The good news: Encrypting your storage drive is simple. This is something we recommend doing for every computer with an SSD, fifty-fifty if y'all're not selling information technology. You can also encrypt mechanical hard drives for the same reason, merely the process takes a specially long time, and it's easier to do a expert-enough chore of removing data on mechanical drives.

Chromebooks commonly use solid-land storage, but Google enables encryption past default, so if y'all're resetting a Chromebook, yous can skip this section.

Windows

If you lot take a Windows estimator, encrypting your storage drive can be a little catchy and depends on which version of Windows your calculator has and what components you have installed.

Open Settings > Update & Security. Look for Device Encryption on the left sidebar. If Device encryption isn't an option on this screen, it'due south non available. If information technology'southward not showing up, also endeavor searching for "device encryption" in the search bar, as in our experience it may testify up there.
If Device encryption is turned off, turn it on.

Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Device Encryption.
If Device encryption is turned off, turn it on (BitLocker may be an pick here, in which case yous can enable information technology and skip the steps).

If device encryption isn't an option, BitLocker may be, provided you accept a copy of Windows 10 (or xi) Pro, Education, or Enterprise. In Windows 11, the BitLocker toggle is on the to a higher place page in Settings, but in Windows 10 y'all'll need to wait elsewhere:

In the search box in the taskbar, type "Manage BitLocker" then select it from the effect.
Click Turn on BitLocker and follow the instructions.

If you're having trouble finding device encryption for your device, the Windows support manufactures may provide more data. BitLocker can too encrypt external drives, including SD cards and flash drives, which is a more secure fashion to delete files on such drives before formatting.

If BitLocker isn't an option, you'll demand to turn to third-party software. We like VeraCrypt, but keep in mind that its encryption process is more complicated than BitLocker's. Some SSD manufacturers may also provide software for securely erasing their SSDs, though we haven't tested any of those utilities.

Mac

A screenshot of the FireVault tab of a Mac's Security and Privacy settings area

Macs have had the aforementioned free encryption tool—called FileVault 2—since 2011, and the process is the same in every version of macOS:

Open System Preferences.
Click Security & Privacy.
Select the FireVault tab.
Click Turn on FileVault.
In Bone X Yosemite and later, you're prompted to employ either your iCloud countersign or a recovery primal (since you're wiping the drive, either choice is fine).

Wipe and reset your computer

This is your last chance to remember any files, and so check one more time earlier yous go on.

Once you lot enable encryption on the SSD, or if your computer has a mechanical difficult drive, all that'southward left is to format the storage drive and reset the operating system. When you lot practise this, you lot have two options: to keep your files (which is useful if your computer is running slow or has other issues) or to remove everything, which deletes all your files stored on the figurer and reinstalls the operating system. If your estimator has an SSD and it'southward encrypted, this step isn't necessary if yous're recycling the computer, but information technology is a expert do.

Windows

Open Settings and select Update & Security.
Click the Recovery tab, so Get Started.
Select Remove everything.

Open up Settings and select Windows Update.
Click Advanced Options, so scroll down to Recovery.
Click Reset PC so Remove everything.

Follow the on-screen prompts, and your computer volition restart; depending on the size of your storage drive, this tin take a few hours. Eventually it'll land on the setup screen, and y'all can power it off.

Mac

For a Mac, you need to boot your reckoner into a special card:

Turn on your computer (or restart information technology).
Immediately press and hold the Command and R keys on the keyboard until the Apple logo appears. Once it does, release the keys.
Your Mac will boot into a special recovery carte. Select the Disk Utility option from the carte du jour.
Choose your storage drive and then click the Erase button. It's okay to go along the default settings for the format and the scheme.
Click Security Options. If you encrypted the storage drive, you tin can leave this at the default option, but if you're formatting a mechanical hard drive, you should move it up to at least the 2d most secure tier, "3-pass secure erase."

In one case Disk Utility finishes erasing everything, you tin turn off the computer. Or you tin head back to the Utilities menu and select Install macOS if you desire to offset the procedure for the next owner, but that isn't required.

ChromeOS

Google enables encryption in ChromeOS past default, and the reset process is straightforward:

Open Settings.
Type Powerwash into the search bar.
Click Reset.
Click Restart.
Click Powerwash and then Go on.

Notation that Chromebooks connect to a Google account, which withal stores nigh, if not all, of your information. When you run Powerwash, information technology automatically logs you lot out of your Google business relationship.

Smartphones and tablets

As with a computer, you lot should take the steps to securely wipe and reset your phone or tablet before selling it. The process is much easier on mobile devices than on computers.

iOS and iPadOS

iPhones and iPads take device encryption enabled by default, so yous need only to reset yours. First, make sure yous have a recent fill-in, and so disable Find My. In one case that's washed, you can reset the phone or tablet:

Open Settings.
Tap General.
Tap Transfer or Reset.
Tap Erase All Content and Settings. Enter your passcode when prompted and and then tap Erase.

When the process is complete, the iPhone or iPad volition restart, after which you can power it off.

Android

Recent Android devices have encryption enabled by default, simply double-check to make sure information technology'due south enabled under Settings > Personal > Security (it may be in a dissimilar place on some Android phones). Likewise, make certain your phone is backed upwards. From there, you can reset the device. This process will vary depending on the phone model, but hither's how to practice and so on a telephone running stock Android:

Open Settings.
Tap System.
Tap Reset options.
Tap Erase all data and follow the on-screen directions.

Whether y'all're passing a figurer on to someone else or sending it off to a recycling eye, wiping your personal information is an integral outset stride, so take the fourth dimension to do it properly.