I have an old work laptop from a job I left three years ago, and the company never asked for it back. I haven't powered it on since I left. I'm curious about the process of wiping it to use it as my personal device. Will formatting the drive be sufficient, or should I consider swapping the hard drive instead? The company was relatively large, but not a major player in the tech industry, and it's an HP laptop, so I don't think there are any tracking features like those on Lenovo devices. Any advice on how to proceed?
3 Answers
Wiping and reformatting the drive should definitely do the trick! Once you've installed a fresh OS, you should be good to go. Just make sure to secure erase the drive if you're worried about any lingering company data.
If there’s no remote management involved, just wiping or swapping the drive along with a clean OS install should make it yours. It’s unlikely the company would track it after so long anyway, but legally, it might still be theirs.
True, but be careful with the legal aspect. You never know what the company might decide!
I suggest checking out Hiren's BootCD. It's got all the tools you'd need for wiping and reinstalling your OS properly. Plus, it'll help with any other maintenance tasks you might want to handle.
Yeah, definitely go for a secure erase. Just formatting might leave some remnants, and you don't want any surprises later!