Data wiping and destruction

If you’re worried about what’s on your old computer, you’re asking exactly the right question. Here’s how it really works, and what we do about it.

Deleting your files does not delete your files

This is the single most important thing on this page, and it surprises almost everyone.

When you delete a file (and even when you empty the Recycle Bin), the data is still physically on the drive. All that’s changed is that the space is marked reusable. Until something overwrites it, the file is recoverable, with free software, by anyone, in minutes.

Formatting is usually no better: a quick format wipes the index, not the contents.

This is how people end up with their tax records, client databases and family photos in the hands of whoever bought their old computer. It’s common, and the good news is that it’s entirely avoidable.

What we do

Every device that comes to us has its data professionally wiped using industry-standard software that meets Australian privacy standards, before it is tested, graded, or put on a shelf.

Certificates of data destruction

Business customers can request a certificate of data destruction.

If you’re an organisation, chances are you need one. Under the Privacy Act, you must take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information you no longer need, and “we gave the old laptops to a bloke” isn’t a step you can evidence to a regulator, an insurer, or a client.

A certificate gives you a documented record that the data on specific drives was destroyed. Just ask us for one when you hand the equipment over, rather than afterwards, and we’ll take care of it.

Placeholder: confirm

Worth stating explicitly here: the standard you wipe to (if you certify to a recognised one such as NIST SP 800-88, name it), whether certificates are free or charged, and whether they’re itemised by serial number.

Business and government buyers make purchasing decisions on exactly this. Being specific wins work that vagueness loses, but only claim what you actually do, because this is the claim most likely to be tested.

Wiping a computer yourself

If you’d rather not hand over a drive with any data on it at all, that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to want, and you can wipe it first.

Windows 10/11: Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Remove everything → and critically, when asked, choose “Clean data” (sometimes worded “Fully clean the drive”). That option is the one that actually overwrites the data. It takes hours rather than minutes, and that’s rather the point. The quick option is not secure.

Do make certain you have your files off first, because this is irreversible. See Transferring your files.

If the computer won’t turn on

You can’t wipe a drive from an operating system that won’t start, and the data on it is still perfectly readable to anyone who takes the drive out. A dead computer is not a safe computer.

Bring it to us and we’ll deal with the drive properly for you.

The cautious option

If you’d simply rather never let the drive out of your hands, that’s entirely reasonable and we’re happy to accommodate it: keep the drive.

Ask us to remove it and hand it back, and you can dispose of it yourself. You’ll lose a little trade-in value, since the machine is then incomplete, and you gain the certainty of never having handed your data to anyone at all.

For plenty of businesses that trade is well worth it. Just let us know up front and we’ll set it aside for you.