I want to take old laptops to the recycling center, but first I want to delete all my data on the hard drives forever.
You can edit the data with software such as Erase erasers, but the safest thing to do is to expand them and destroy them yourself.
Software:
https://www.chip.de/...94923.html
Destroy yourself:
Remove the hard drive and put it in the drawer - never throw it away with it, otherwise you will block great possibilities.
I like to build such reserve disks into the second computer (takes 2 minutes) and install virus-safe and excellently equipped, free operating systems such as Mint. Free operating systems have numerous advantages over the severely restricted Windows. The installation ISO can be downloaded without registration, account requirements and costs. The installation is done in one evening, does not require an account, does not need a virus scanner and has LibreOffice on board as a full version.
The operation of the Linuxe is easier than with Windows, with the old data I could of course continue to work seamlessly - with much better possibilities.
