With Windows 8 now out and the holiday season approaching lot of people will be getting new computers and electron devices that have personal information on them. I thought this would be a good time to remember how to dispose of those devices
When you get rid of paper documents you should shred them, This include the offers for new credit cards, or any information that would compromise your personal information and make it easy for to become an identity theft victim from loss of information that is printed.
If you think about your Computer you have lots of information as well that could allow thief’s to steal from you.
1st backup what you want to keep.
You can use Flash Drives, Hard Drives or Cloud based solutions like https://skydrive.live.com
SkyDrive is a free service from Microsoft that gives you 7 gig of free storage (by the way this work with PC, Mac and Phones)
You can transfer you data using tool like Windows Easy Transfer or lot of 3rd party tools.
2nd Now that you backup you data it time to decide how you are going to clean up and erase your personal data off the old computer.
You can use specialized software that is designed to government standards and will overwrite your information. By the way formatting the hard drive or deleting files does not protect you from someone undeleting you data on a Secure Wiping program does that like (Active@ KillDisk and Softpedia DP Wiper are free downloads).
3rd Now you need to decide what you are doing with the old hardware.
Now is the time to think about those who do not have computers.
You could donate the computer to a local Non-profit.
There are national groups who can find a home for your old computers like the National Cristina Foundation
For Windows Phones: Follow these four steps or contact your service provider for instructions.
1. Tap Start and flick left to the App list.
2. Tap Settings and then tap about.
3. At the bottom of the screen, tap reset your phone.
4. To confirm the reset, tap yes.
For Xbox consoles:
Copy your games, movies, and other files onto a new device and then wipe the old one. Learn how to copy, move, or delete files from your Xbox and then reformat the hard drive.
For other phones: go to the manufacture site and look on how to do a factory reset.