How Do I Clear My Laptop Before Selling It on Windows 10

If you are going to sell or gift your laptop or PC (installed with Windows 10/8.1/8/7), make sure you have cleared all of your data. Simply deleted data can be recovered, which means you are at the risk of data leakage.

How to Prepare to Sell/Gift a Used Computer Without Worries

To avoid data leakage, you must learn how to clear your laptop before selling or donating. In this guide, I'll walk you through the steps to prepare for selling your desktop, laptop, or tablet without compromising your personal information, or giving away costly software.

• 1. Transfer Data/Software to New PC
• 2. Erase Everything (3 Ways)
• 3. Sell/Gift the Used Laptop/PC

1 - Transfer All Needed Data/Costly Software to New Computer

If the used laptop or computer has important data, make a backup in advance. You can back up data to your cloud drive. Or, you can transfer all the needed data and applications to your brand new laptop or computer directly.

To transfer your Office (with license key), Games, or other files from the old PC to the new, you need PC transfer software. EaseUS Todo PCTrans make it easy to migrate programs and data from PC to PC. This is an example of transfer Microsoft Office to the new PC. You can also transfer data from PC to PC with the help of EaseUS data transfer software.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Todo PCTrans and select the transfer direction.

• Download and install EaseUS Todo PCTrans on both of your computers.
• Launch EaseUS Todo PCTrans on the PCs and choose the transfer direction on the PC to PC interface.

"This is Old PC" - Move Office from current old computer to another new one.

"This is New PC" - Transfer Office from old device to current new device.

Step 2. Connect the source PC and the target PC.

• Choose one method to connect the current PC to the target PC: enter the target computer's account password or its verification code. You can click and check the verification code on the right top of the "PC to PC" mainscreen on the target computer.
• Choose the transfer direction and click "Connect".

Step 3. Select Office to transfer.

• Hover on "Applications" and choose Microsoft Office and click "Transfer".
• Wait for the transfer process to finish and then click "OK".

Step 4. Save the product key to activate Microsoft Office.

• Back to the interface to click "Product Key".
• In the list, click "Copy" to save the activation key.

2 - Erase Everything on Your Windows 10/8.1/8/7 PC/Laptop

After you have backed up your data and applications, you can wipe everything on your computer by the following methods.

• Method 1. Reset Windows 10
• Method 2. Erase the Hard Drive
• Method 3. Remove a Device from Microsoft Account

Method 1. Reset Windows 10 To Remove All the Personal Data

This method works well if you want to remove all of the files, programs, and settings. Follow the steps below to reset Windows 10.

Step 1. Go to "Start" > "Settings" > "Update & Security" > "Recovery". 

Step 2. Under "Reset this PC option", tap "Get Started".

Step 3. Click "Remove everything". All of your settings will return to their defaults, and apps will be uninstalled.

Step 4. Select "only the drive where Windows is installed" or "All drives" according to your needs.

Step 5. Select "Remove files and clean the drive" if you are going to sell the computer. The next user can't recover your erased files.

Step 6. Click "Reset" when prompted. Wait patiently in this process.

Resetting your device removes your files, settings, and apps, then reinstall Windows.

Method 2. Erase the Hard Drive with Professional HDD Eraser (Recommended)

If you want to make sure that you permanently erase the data on the disk, then you must use - EaseUS Partition Master. This disk/partition eraser can wipe, format, and delete partition data permanently with simple steps.

The erasure standard of this software is the DoD 5220.22-M standard. Erase your data 2 times and they disappear completely. Follow the steps below to erase data on your own.

We've set two options for you to wipe data. Choose the one you need.

Option 1.  Wipe Partition

• Right-click the partition you want to erase data from, and choose "Wipe".
• In the new window, set the time for which you want to wipe your partition, then click "OK".
• Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" button in the lower right corner, check the changes, then click "Apply".

Option 2. Wipe Disk

• Select the HDD/SSD. And right-click to choose "Wipe Disk".
• Set the number of times to wipe data. (You can set to 10 at most.) Then Click "OK".
• Click "Execute 1 Task(s)" and then click "Apply".

Method 3. Remove a Device from Microsoft Account

To make sure that there is no trace of your personal information on your computer, you are advised to remove a device from your Microsoft account. Follow the steps to remove the computer from your Microsoft account.

Step 1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com/devices, sign in, and find the device you want to remove.

Step 2. Select "Show details" to see info for that device.

Step 3. Under your device's name, select "Manage > Remove PC".

Step 4. Review your device details, select the box for "I'm ready to remove this device", then select "Remove".

Step 5. Click "Remove it from your Store account" after removing it from Microsoft.

Step 6. Find the device you want to remove and select "Unlink".

Step 7. Review your device details and select "Unlink".

You have removed everything from your PC or laptop. Then, you can sell or gift the old PC. 

3 - Sell/Gift the Used Windows 10/8.1/8/7 Laptop/PC 

Before listing your desktop or laptop for sale, you need to find out how much money you can get out of the device. To find out the price other people are selling the same or equivalent product in a similar condition. You can use eBay and Craigslist to do your research.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to reset your Windows 10 PC, and clear computers without leaking data. And if you're planning on selling or giving your laptop away, you can do it with peace. The next owner won't have access to your files.