If your laptop/computer is getting old or you are planning to buy a new one then this article is definitely for you. In this article, you are going to see some “basic to advanced level things to do before selling your used laptop or computer“, these to do things prevent you from sharing your personal information.

If you sell your laptop right away then the buyer can see all of your personal data and even old passwords which is a very risky condition for you.

We know you’re very excited to sell your old laptop, but there are many things that you should do in order to make it more convenient for both you and your buyers. Here, you see all things you need to do before thinking about selling your laptop.

Basic things To Do Before Selling Windows Laptop or Computer

We all know, that even after deleting your personal data from the device there are still chances that it gets recovered pretty easily with Recovery Software. That’s why in this guide you’re going to see basic things that you should do before selling a windows Laptop or computer.

Take Back-Up

The first and most important thing is copying all important files in your new laptop/Hard drive/cloud or even on USB. Make sure the external device where you going to transfer all your important files has a lot of storage space.

Transferring Files To An External Drive

1. Plugin your external hard drive.
2. Select your important files.
3. Drag and drop it to your external hard drive or select your files and do right-click on it and send it to your drive.
4. Now your files should be transferred.

Transfer All files to the New computer

To complete the transfer of your Office(with license key), Games, or other files from the old PC to new, at that moment you need PC transfer software. EaseUS Todo PCTrans make this much easy to transfer program and data from PC to PC. To transfer data from PC to PC with the help of EaseUS just follow the below steps:

Step 1: Download and install ‘EaseUS Todo PCTrans‘ on both laptops, from where you want to transfer and also on that laptop where you want to transfer files.

Step 2: Launch EaseUS on the Pc and choose the option “PC to PC” on one of the computers.

Step 3: Choose a method to connect both PC, now on the current system enter the target computer account password or code.

Step 4: Choose the transfer direction and click “Connect“.

Step 5: Select Office to transfer, then hover on any “Application” and choose “Edit“. Now in the list, Choose Microsoft Office and click “Finish“.

Step 6: Transfer Microsoft Office to another PC, click on “Transfer” to start transferring Microsoft Office to another PC, after finishing click “OK”.

Step 7: Product key, Back to the interface to click “Product key“, in the list click “Copy” to save the activation key.

Take Backup Using Onedrive

It is the perfect time to use the Microsoft OneDrive cloud server. Well, OneDrive is not the only cloud server that is used to take backup in the cloud, you can check Best Cloud Storage of 2023, all mentioned cloud storage is secured and protected.

OneDrive comes pre-installed in your Windows operating system, it will sync to your Microsoft account where you can safely transfer your files into the cloud. In the cloud you can easily access it anytime on your new computers from any place, it also saves you from buying an external hard drive which costs much.

How to transfer files to OneDrive:

1. Go to File Explorer and choose the file you want to take backup.
2. Highlight those files then click on the “Home” tab and then choose the “Copy to” option.
3. If you can’t see OneDrive on the list so go to the very end of the list and click on “choose location”.
4. A new window now pop-up, there you can choose the OneDrive folder.
5. At last, click on “Copy” and it should transfer the selected files into the Onedrive folder.

OneDrive comes with 5Gb of data for free, even you can increase the storage by upgrading your free plan to a premium one. 100GB for $1.99 per month it also comes with Microsoft 365 subscription and other services.

It is hard to keep track of all important files, there is a chance that you forget some important files. Then it should be good to take backup.

Backup Data into External Hard Drive

Take your backup, it is very important before doing anything with your files such as documents, photos, and programs. If you have a small amount of data then cloud and external hard disk are good choices.

If you have a large amount of data then you can set up Windows built-in Backup and restore all those files to an external hard drive.

Create a system Image to take backup

1. Connect the external hard drive with a large space. like HDD or SSD.
2. Now go to Control Panel, click on ‘System and Security‘, then click on ‘Backup and Restore(Windows 7)‘ option.
3. On the left pane, you can see ‘Create a system image‘ and click on it.
4. Now, choose the ‘On a hard disk option‘, scroll down to find your external hard drive, and press next.
5. Click on ‘Start Backup‘ and your computer starts creating a system image.

Update All Drivers Using Driver Booster

This is a thing which many people don’t care about but this is very important maybe now your laptop or pc working fine but this can create trouble in the future for your customer. So, it is always good to update all drivers on your laptop before selling it to someone, so they won’t have any complaints.

To update your drivers just use “Drive Booster” software it scans all drivers that your PC needs and will download updated drivers on your laptop or Pc. After updating restart your laptop or Pc manually or choose to restart automatically.

Drivers are basic things that you need for the functioning of different peripherals in your laptop or Pc but some are old drivers which your laptop doesn’t need anymore because your buyer maybe not use the same peripherals as yours.

Driver Booster helps you to do it. Open Drive Booster software, head over to the “Tools” section and click on “Clean Unplugged Device Data” and select “Scan”. Now you get a list of unused drivers, just click on “Clean” to delete them. At last, restart your Pc/laptop.

Wipe Your Hard Drive

This is the most crucial thing to do before selling your laptop, even after deleting files manually there is a chance that your data get recovered easily by using some Data Recovery software.

Wiping your Hard disk ensures that all your data is permanently deleted from your laptop or Pc, without leaving any trace and even recovery software can’t able to recover them.

While normally deleting files your files are still located on a hard drive, it only deletes the reference of the data that are not located in that place after deleting. That is what recovery software does to recover deleted files.

To permanently delete files from your laptop or Pc using free software: This is an important thing to do before selling your laptop, even after deleting files manually there is a chance that your data get recovered easily by using some Data Recovery software.

Update Your Windows

This is very important to give the buyer an update window that fixes all bugs and improves performance with every update. Make sure to update only when you get a stable Update only.

Navigate to Windows settings, go to the “Update and Security” sections, click on “Check for updates” and install it if you get any.

Also read: Check Windows Update Size before Downloading

Deleting All Credentials

The credential is your information which is a very important asset for you, you know the dark web is a place where user’s data is sold and bought in high amounts which directly indicates how valuable is your information for them.

So, always prevent your data to give into other hands.

Reset The Windows

Reset your windows OS and remove any kind of personal data left. To do this navigate to Settings then on the ‘Recovery‘ section you can see the first option as ‘Reset This Pc‘. Under that, click on “Get Started” then you get many options, choose the option ‘Remove Everything‘.

Now in the next pop-up, click on ‘Change settings‘ and turn on the buttons for both ‘Data Erasure‘ and ‘Data Drives‘. Then click on ‘Next‘ and proceed with the process. It takes some time depending on your HDD speed, so make sure your device does not get disconnected from the power source.

How To Reset And Remove everything In Mac

Mac has a much easy OS to do a factory reset and wipe clean. They have a good user interface and their options are very easy to follow and understand.

Step 1: Go to iCloud, click on ‘Sign Out‘ and disable ‘Find My Mac’ on iCloud.

Step 2: Uncheck from each and every app for properly signing out and press ‘Continue‘.

If you have apps that are not linked with iCloud then make sure to sign out from them as well.

Step 3: Now for wiping, restart your Mac laptop and hold the ‘Command + R‘ button while it starts booting up. It now opens the ‘macOS Utilities‘ windows. They choose the disk utility option and click on ‘Continue‘.

Step 4: Now choose the hard disk you want to erase and press the erase option present on the upper side of the window.

Note: Choose the format ‘Mac Os Extended‘ before clicking on erase button, it prevents any type of issue.

Now your Mac starts erasing.

Step 5: Go back to macOS Utilities and choose the ‘reinstall macOS‘ option. Press continue and your Mac computer starts reinstalling the macOS.

How To Reset Windows 8 laptop/Computer

The steps of resetting the operating system of Windows 8 are however similar to Windows 10 with some minor changes.

Step 1: Go to settings>Update and Security.

Step 2: Now go to Recovery and choose the ‘Get Started‘ as similar to Windows 10.

Step 3: Now in the next window, chose the second option ‘Remove files and clean the drive‘, and wait until the process ends.

That’s it for Windows 8 system.

Reinstall the OS

After applying the above steps, now you need to set your laptop back to the default factory-set like before you get after buying your laptop. Every laptop or Pc needs OS like Windows, Linux, etc. Reinstall the OS on your laptop and enter the alphanumeric product key to activate your OS.

If you don’t have an OS disk then download it from Microsoft through the Digital River website and install it. While if you don’t have an activation key then, download a program called Magical Bean Keyfinder that is used to find keys to programs.

Remove your Device From Your Microsoft Account

To make sure that there is no trace of your personal information on your computer then it is necessary to remove the Microsoft account from the laptop.

1. Go to Microsoft, sign-in, and remove the device you want to. You cal also see more information about the device by clicking on ‘Show details’.
2. Under your device name, select ‘Manage>Remove PC‘.
3. Now check on a box of “I’m ready to remove this device” then select ‘Remove.
4. Now click on ‘Remove it from your Store account‘ after removing it from Microsoft.
5. The device that you want to remove find it and select ‘Unlink‘. Review it and select ‘Unlink‘.

Done, you remove everything from your Pc related to your account.

Find Product Keys For Installed Software

You definitely have keys for installed software and OS on your laptop or computers. Before selling your system make sure to write down the keys to use on your new laptop or computer.

However, if you forget the keys then third-party software helps you to find keys to products. iSumsoft Product key finder is one of the best software to find product keys.

Make Your Laptop or Pc Shine

After securing and cleaning your laptop or pc from the inside, you need to clean it from the outside as well. As you know, good-looking things sell quickly as compared to any dirty ones. To clean your system follow the below steps:

1. First, switch off your laptop and gently shake it. It helps you to get rid off loose particles which are stuck between your keyboard, speaker, and fan spaces. You can also use a duster.
2. Now take isopropyl alcohol and dip cotton into it and clean all areas of the keyboard, speaker side, and fan side but make sure to rub lightly to remove dirt. Make sure you don’t have much amount of alcohol on cotton.
3. Clean your laptop with soft cloths to wipe away fingerprints to give it a neat and clear look.
4. A clear look makes it easier to sell your laptop, take a good picture and post it online, and attracts buyers.

Where to sell Old Laptop/Computer

After applying all the above methods now you are good to sell your laptop or Pc and convert your hardware to cash. It’s always good to list your laptop on many sites to get a good price for your laptop.

Recommended checking retailers like Microsoft Store, Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, and many more online websites to understand the current price of your laptop. If you’re selling your computer/laptop to offline stores or someone you know, then it is also recommended to have your system information to not face any loss.

System Information you should know before sell

You need to know your system brand, detail of model number, operating system, bit size, processor name, RAM size, screen size, and much more. To know system information you are going to see 2 ways without using any third-party application. Let see:

Method 1: Click on the Start menu, type, ‘system information‘, and open it to get all system-related information on your screen.

Method 2: Click on the Start menu, type ‘Run‘, and open it. Now on Run type ‘dxdiag‘ and hit enter button.

Now System, Display 1, Display2, Sound, and Input all related information comes in a new pop-up window.

To find out your system screen size, check out “How to find out the screen size of my laptop“.

Selling tips for laptop/Pc

Selling a laptop or Pc to someone you know is much better because there are no hassles as compared to online selling but yes you get however less amount price for your system.

For online selling of your laptop or Pc, make sure to include each and every small detail of your system and avoid negative points mentioned.

Use catchy headlines to describe the products. Upload a good picture of your laptop or computer from each angle along with documents, and boxes if you have any. It’s very important to show as many as only positive points of your system.

Conclusion

In this article, you have seen things that every seller should do before selling their laptop or computer on an online website or in offline stores, from how to protect your data and a way to get more money as compared to the laptop or computer’s actual price. Make sure to delete personal information from your system so that buyers can’t able to misuse it. I hope you sure going to attract a lot of buyers and get the best deal for your laptop.

Note: Use data recovery software after deleting your personal files using third-party apps to make sure your data is not going to recover anymore.

FAQs on things to do before selling an old PC/Laptop

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