Slightly overscheduled this week, Angela takes advantage of a quiet moment in Piñataland to answer a pertinent question from her mom. What, writes Cheryl, can one do to take personal information off a computer before giving it to charity?
The Duo agree that it's important to make sure that your personal files are not only deleted but wiped clean from any system you'll be getting rid of, whether the old computer's being donated to a good cause or simply going into the nearest landfill. Steve notes that the first step is to back up that soon-to-be-demolished data. Afterward, Angela suggests making a pass through the hard drive with a program such as WipeDrive or Sure Delete, either of which will make files unrecoverable by repeatedly writing new data over the portions of the drive where the old files were stored.
Great question? Sure, and good policy for anyone giving away a gadget on which personal info might reside. But there'll be no prize awarded this week, as family members are thankfully spared the Piñata's output.
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