So you’re selling your old iPhone, or maybe you bought some used laptops in bulk for the office, or you just want to cover your bases by getting every scrap of sensitive data off of your PC. Whatever your reasons, you need to completely wipe down your old device or computer and restore it to factory settings. So, how do we do that, in the simplest way possible, and without having to watch one of those Youtube tutorial videos where a guy sloooowly types the instructions into notepad? Read on:
Step 1: Get backups of whatever you need to keep
When you wipe a drive, there’s no going back. The data that’s deleted is deleted forever. So if there’s anything you’d like to keep, anything that you can’t just download again off the Internet, back it up. Get a USB stick, upload it to the cloud, whatever you have to do to keep it.
Step 2: Clear your bases
Remove your SD cards, your SIM cards, and log out of anything you’re logged into. Finally, write down the serial number on the device and keep it somewhere safe, just in case.
Step 3: Reset and restore
Most PC’s and laptops are easy to restore to factory settings. Go to change PC settings, click update and recovery, go to recovery, and then “remove everything and reinstall windows,” and follow the instructions from there. Portable devices usually have a very simple means of restoring itself to factory conditions. For iPhones, go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings, and then remove your phone from your Apple ID, if you registered. iPhones are easy. Androids have a factory reset option. However, this will only remove data at the app level, and may retain chat logs and so on, so you will need to…
Step 4: Encrypt
Encrypting your device before you wipe it will scramble the data so that even if the wipe isn’t complete, the next user will need a special key in order to see what you were up to. Stock android phones let you encrypt from the security tab under settings.
Alternative Option: Surgery
An easy way to back your computer up and wipe it down at the same time: Just take out the hard drive and replace it with a new one, and then reinstall Windows. You can plug your old drive right into a new computer and you’re good to go.
