To protect against identity theft or someone getting a hold of personal information stored in your computer, you should erase the hard drive of your computer before you donate it.
Willie Cade, president of Computers for Schools, says his organization erases hard drives when they receive donated computers, but he recommends people erase the drives themselves first. And don’t worry about erasing programs you think might be usable–Computers for Schools and other refurbishers install new operating systems (usually Microsoft) on donated hardware.
You can download free programs that will clean your hard drive, says Jim Lynch, who runs the computer reuse and recycling program for CompuMentor. The programs usually overwrite data on the computer so it can’t be recovered. He recommends one called Kill Disk, which can be found at www.shareware.com.
