When a laptop becomes old, we look forward to using that new laptop that has all the fastest, smartest, and best features. But we still have to get rid of the dinosaur we’ve been using. Most people today are smart and don’t waste time finding out what to do before selling my laptop” via Google. Laptop recycling is a great idea, as the amount of e-waste in the world reached a record high of 53.6 million metric tons in 2019.
But laptop recycling also creates some safety concerns for which a few steps need to be followed. Dig deeper to know about some safety measures that can prepare your laptop for recycling. But before talking about the safe methods to recycle your laptop, let’s discuss some of the benefits of laptop recycling.
Safety Measures to Recycle Your Laptop
While recycling is a noble idea, you should know that there’s a high risk of a data breach. Browse through some steps that can help in recycling your laptops without impacting their data.
1. Make a Backup of All Data Before Recycling Your Laptop
Before recycling your laptop, backing up all data stored in it is an essential step to follow. Creating a backup ensures that you don’t lose data after recycling your laptop so that the data can be used afterward. A convenient way to create a backup is to save your data on a portable storage device.
You can use an external hard drive or USB or put all your data in a new device. Another great way of conveniently storing all your data is to use cloud storage. Before sending your device for IT recycling, you should not forget to do this before sending your device.
2. Erase All Data from the Hard Drive
Before recycling your laptop, you should erase everything that’s stored on the hard drive. Wiping data from your hard drive does not only mean deleting the data. Several data recovery programs can be used to retrieve data from your hard drive. You should know how to properly wipe out all data from your hard drive. The steps are as follows:
- You need to start by simply deleting all the files from your laptop. Use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Del to do it.
- After that, you should be overwriting the files using multiple data shredding programs. Overwriting multiple times makes it difficult to retrieve the data.
- You can data shredding software programs like Eraser, WipeFile, and Secure Eraser.
3. Wipe Data from Your External Drives
If your laptop has external drives connected to it, you need to wipe them clean as well. Cleaning the external drives is easier than cleaning your laptop’s hard drive. The steps to completely wipe out data from your external drives are as follows:
- Check whether the drive is connected to your laptop
- Right click on an external drive
- A drop-down menu will appear from where you need to select “Format.”
- A pop-up window will appear. Do not forget to uncheck the “Quick Format” option from the pop-up window.
- Repeat these steps for all the external drives on your laptop.
4. Clear the Browsing History
Most people don’t bother clearing their browsing history, even though it’s essential to do so before taking your laptop for recycling. Google Chrome is the popular choice of search engine for most users. The steps to remove your browsing history from Google Chrome are as follows:
- Click on the three dots in the top right corner of Google Chrome.
- From the drop-down menu that appears, select “History.”
- A new page will open where you need to select the “Clear Browsing Data” option.
- A new page will show where you need to select the data you want to remove. If you are sending your laptop for recycling, select all the options.
Benefits of Recycling Your Laptop
You have learned about the ways to make your laptop safe for recycling. But why should you recycle your laptop in the first place? Some of the most obvious benefits of recycling your laptop are as follows:
- Clean Environment: Laptop recycling can prevent the landfills from filling out with electronic waste. Since you won’t dump your laptop in the landfills, no harmful toxins will be released into the environment. It will help in reducing the scale of environmental pollution.
- Economic Benefits: Recycling your laptop is also beneficial for the economy. Recycling your laptop can help in reducing production costs. The parts of your laptop can be used to manufacture other models. Therefore, components will not have to be manufactured from scratch.
- Less Use of Energy: When recycled goods are used to manufacture new products, less energy is required. Water consumption is also low in the case of manufacturing electronic goods with recycled parts. It also reduces the amount of pollution created in manufacturing electronic goods from scratch.
Ending Note
Recycling your laptops is a great idea for environmental reasons. It can help with a significant reduction in the amount of e-waste generated all over the world. But if you want to prevent data leaks while recycling your laptop, you should follow the safety reasons mentioned above.
***Many thanks to our guest blogger, Britney Sparrow! Thanks for providing this valuable information to our valued members!