If you are buying a new PC laptop and want to sell the old one, you should erase it first. Microsoft makes it easy to reformat your computer in Windows 10. But it is important to follow the basic steps to wipe your information from the laptop’s hard drive.

This post will teach you how to quickly erase a PC laptop and provide insights on how and where to sell your old computer for cash.

Oh, and if you are an Apple user, our post on How to factory reset an Apple laptop might come of use to you. 

What Does it Mean to Wipe Your PC Laptop?

Wiping your laptop means erasing its storage clean from any stored information. Data wipe is also often performed to troubleshoot performance issues. For example, it might be a good idea to run a factory reset if your PC does the following: files have suddenly gone missing or are inaccessible, issues with software updates, slowed system. 

Disabling Bitlocker Encryption in Windows

If you have encrypted your storage drive with BitLocker, be sure to disable it before you do anything else. The easiest way to stop encryption is via Windows GUI mode. To do that, click Start in the lower-left corner of your screen, then–Control Panel, and click on System and Security. After that, select BitLocker Drive Encryption–Turn Off BitLocker. You can now proceed with reformatting the storage.

Before Wiping Your PC Laptop

We recommend creating a backup before resetting your PC laptop to factory settings and erasing its storage drive. Use either an external drive or cloud storage, like Google Drive or Dropbox, to prevent data loss. If possible, we recommend doing both because hard drives do break, and having access to your data at your fingertips is nice. Plus, Google Drive gives you 15GB of free storage.

How to Factory Reset Your PC laptop?

To reset your PC laptop to its out-of-box state in Windows, please follow these steps:

1. Click the Start icon and then–Settings.
2. Click on Update & Security.
3. Opt for Recovery.
4. On the Recovery page, in the Reset this PC section, click on Get Started.
5. Opt to Remove Everything. Then, follow the instructions to complete the erasure process and subsequent Windows re-installation.
6. Click Reset when prompted, and Windows will restart. This process can take several minutes to up to half an hour to complete.

Reformat Windows 10 from the Sign-in Screen

If you no longer can access the desktop with your admin account, try resetting your PC from the sign-in screen.

To do that, go through the following steps:

1. Press the Windows logo key and L on your keyboard to take you to the Windows 10 sign-in screen.
2. Another option to reset your device is to hold the Shift key while you click the Power button and select Restart. 
3. The PC will restart in Windows Recovery Environment.
4. Choose Troubleshoot—Reset this PC.

Bottom Line

Erasing storage before selling your PC laptop is an essential part of the preparation process unless you don’t care about someone else potentially getting ahold of your information. It is also useful to backup your old drive as you might need that data sometime in the future. Finally, reset your PC device to its factory state before reselling it. And if you are looking for a place to sell your used computer, we at Gadget Salvation would gladly help you make that happen!