For the ultimate personal security, you can remove the hard drive from your computer before you give it away and destroy the drive. One way to do that is to thoroughly wipe (not simply erase) your old hard drive - for details on how to do that, see our article on fully wiping your computer's hard drive. When you're selling, donating, or recycling a computer, it's critical that you ensure you're not accidentally giving someone else access to your personal and private data stored on the computer. Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories. Here's how to disassemble and destroy your hard drive with just a few common tools. If you're donating, selling, or recycling a computer, you'll want to make absolutely sure you're not giving away the personal and private information on your hard drive. You can destroy a hard drive by wiping its contents and disassembling its parts for ultimate security. If you want to be sure your hard drive's data is never recoverable, you can physically destroy it.

How to erase computer hard drive