What to Do Before Giving Away or Selling Your Old PC

Getting rid of an old PC? Whether you're selling it, giving it to a family member, or dropping it at the tip — you need to wipe it first. I've lost count of the number of second-hand machines I've been asked to set up that still had the previous owner's photos, emails, saved passwords, and bank details sitting right there on the desktop.

It takes about 30 minutes to do properly. Here's exactly what to do, step by step.

1. Back Up Everything You Want to Keep

Before you wipe anything, make sure your files are safe somewhere else. Once you reset the PC, everything on it is gone.

Check these locations — they're where most people's important stuff lives:

• Desktop — people dump everything here
• Documents — Word files, spreadsheets, PDFs
• Downloads — often full of things you meant to save properly
• Pictures / Videos — family photos, phone backups
• Browser bookmarks — years of saved links that are easy to forget about

Copy everything to an external hard drive, USB stick, or a cloud service like OneDrive or Google Drive. If you're not sure how much space you need, right-click your user folder (C:\Users\YourName) and check the size.

2. Sign Out of Everything

This is the step most people skip, and it's the most important one for your security. Your browser has all your passwords saved. Your email is logged in. Your cloud storage is syncing. If someone turns on this PC, they have access to everything.

Sign out of these before you reset:

• Your Microsoft account — Settings → Accounts. This is the big one — it links to your email, OneDrive, and anything else tied to your Microsoft login
• Web browsers — Chrome, Edge, Firefox. Sign out of the browser itself (not just close it), so your saved passwords, history, and autofill data stop syncing to this device
• Cloud storage — OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud. Unlink the PC from your account so it stops syncing
• Streaming services — Spotify, Netflix, Disney+. Most have a limited number of devices, and you don't want yours used up on a PC you no longer own
• Gaming platforms — Steam, Xbox, Epic Games. Sign out so the new owner can't buy games on your card
• Messaging apps — WhatsApp Desktop, Telegram, Teams, Slack

3. Deauthorise Software Licences

Some software only lets you install it on a limited number of devices. If you don't deauthorise the old PC, you're wasting one of your activations.

• Microsoft Office — if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, go to account.microsoft.com/devices and remove the PC from your account
• Adobe Creative Cloud — sign out from the app before resetting. Adobe lets you use two devices at once — if you don't sign out, you'll need to deactivate it remotely from their website
• iTunes / Apple Music — if you use iTunes on Windows, go to Account → Authorisations → Deauthorise This Computer. You only get 5 authorisations

4. Reset the PC — The Right Way

This is the main event. Windows has a built-in reset tool that wipes your files and reinstalls the operating system. But you need to choose the right options — a basic reset isn't enough if you're giving the PC to someone you don't know.

Go to Settings → System → Recovery and click Reset this PC.

Step 1: Choose "Remove everything"

Choose "Remove everything". The "Keep my files" option is for when you're fixing your own PC — not for giving it away.

Step 2: Choose "Local reinstall"

You'll be asked how to reinstall Windows. Local reinstall is faster and works without an internet connection — it uses the Windows files already on the machine. Cloud download takes longer but gives you a completely fresh copy of Windows, which can be useful if the PC has been playing up.

Step 3: Clean the drive

This is the critical step. When you get to the additional settings screen, click "Change settings" and turn on "Clean data".

Without "Clean data", your files are deleted but not actually overwritten — someone with free recovery software could get them back. With it turned on, Windows overwrites the data so it's much harder to recover. It takes longer (a couple of hours instead of 30 minutes), but it's worth it if the PC is going to a stranger.

5. What About the Hard Drive?

For most people, the Windows reset with "Clean data" is more than enough. But if the PC had genuinely sensitive data on it — business records, financial documents, medical information — and you want absolute certainty, you have two options:

• Physically remove the hard drive. Take it out and keep it, destroy it, or wipe it separately. The PC can be sold without a drive (just mention it in the listing) — the buyer can fit their own
• Use a dedicated wiping tool. Tools like DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) write random data over the entire drive multiple times. This is overkill for most people, but it exists if you need it

For SSDs specifically, the Windows "Clean data" reset is genuinely effective — SSDs handle data differently to traditional hard drives, and the built-in reset does a good job. Don't worry about needing third-party tools for an SSD.

6. Don't Forget These

Before the PC leaves your hands, a final checklist:

• Remove SD cards and USB drives. Check every slot — SD card readers are easy to forget, especially on laptops
• Check the disc drive. If the PC has a DVD/Blu-ray drive, make sure there's nothing left in it
• Remove the PC from your Microsoft account. Go to account.microsoft.com/devices and remove it from your device list
• Remove it from Find My Device. If you had this enabled, it's linked to your Microsoft account — removing the device handles it
• Peel off stickers with personal info. Asset tags from work, name labels, anything with your details on it
• Include the charger. If it's a laptop, don't forget the power cable — a laptop without a charger is worth significantly less

Mac? Different Process

If you're getting rid of a Mac rather than a Windows PC, the process is different:

1. Sign out of iCloud — System Settings → Apple ID → Sign Out. This is the most important step — it removes Activation Lock so the next person can actually use the Mac
2. Sign out of iMessage — open Messages, go to Settings → iMessage → Sign Out
3. Erase and reinstall — on Apple Silicon or T2 Macs, go to System Settings → General → Transfer or Reset → Erase All Content and Settings. On older Macs, boot into Recovery (Cmd+R) and use Disk Utility to erase the drive, then reinstall macOS