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What to Do Before Selling Your Old Laptop?

If you’re due for a hardware upgrade or just looking to make some cash out of your old computer, in this guide, you can learn what to do before selling your old laptop. So, let’s come to the point. Your machine is old. Laptops actually get old quite quickly nowadays, and the signs are often obvious. Frequent crashes, terrible performance, and, in the case of laptops, CPU fans that sound like jet engines after about an hour’s worth of work all point to the fact that the machine is struggling. So, you can buy a new machine, but you don’t know what to do with the old one. In the age of internet forums and eBay, throwing it away isn’t your only option.

You can sell it to someone who’s on a budget and doesn’t a new expensive machine. The buyer will get what they want and you will get some extra cash. On the other hand, you won’t have old broken laptops lying around your house, gathering dust, and the money you get for it will ease the financial impact of buying a new computer. The thing is, there are several things to do before you sell your old device.


Four steps selling your old laptop:


You should be doing this even if you’re not selling your old laptop, but if, for whatever reason, you have not backed up your valuable information, you should do it in a right away. This all seems like a daunting task to a lot of people, but it’s far from it. All you need to do is decide where you want to store your backup, and then click a few buttons.

The first option is on a removable device. You should clearly understand that you have to spend some money and buy a portable hard drive. Once you have the storage device, you can either use a dedicated solution for backing up your important files or just select, copy, and paste them. See, everything is simple!

There are people, who prefer the cloud storage option. As with everything, there are pros and cons to this method as well. Cloud backups are usually done with third-party software applications which may or may not be terribly easy to use. In most cases, they work on a subscription model which means that instead of buying a hardware device, your costs will be spread over time. It’s well worth the money, though.

Comparing these two data saving methods, it is important to remember that some people pick cloud backup because of security. The trustworthy cloud backup solutions encrypt the files before sending them off for storage, so in many cases, this is actually the more secure option. One way or another, the decision about where to store your personal information is yours and it depends on your preferences and needs. One thing you shouldn’t forget, however, is that an untested backup is as good as no backup. Be careful.

Delete Personal Information

Of course, selling your laptop on your own, you should think of your personal security. The buyer might be a nice person. They might even your good friend. But this doesn’t mean, however, that they should be able to see your photos, documents, and the rest of your personal files. When you bought your old laptop, it likely had nothing more than Windows installed on it. You need to make sure that when you pass it on, it will be in exactly the same shape.

With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced a feature that makes this quite easy. With it, you can reset the laptop as if it’s just had Windows installed. To find it, open the Start Menu type “Settings” and click Enter. Follow the instructions and make sure that when prompted, you confirm that you want to have all your files deleted.

The other option is to format your hard drive and install Windows afresh. Once again, even if it seems impossible now, you can actually go through the process, you’ll see that it’s not that hard at all. Finding information on what you’re supposed to do is especially easy thanks to the wonders of Google and the Internet. It doesn’t take much time!

Clean Your Laptop

Let’s come to the point! Your laptop is clean inside, but you have to clean it outside either. As a rule, there is much dust covering on hardware equipment, such as keyboard, screen, and interfaces. If you want to sell it at a relatively higher price or make it newer before donating, don’t forget to do the cleaning.

You need a cotton rag, a cleaned and soft brush, specialized detergent, and hair drier. If there is no detergent, clean water is also OK. The process goes in this way: make the laptop vertical to the ground or desktop, clean dust with the brush slightly, and use the cotton rag which is with detergent or clean water to wipe screen, keyboard, interfaces, and so on. At last, dry the laptop with hair drier. IMPORTANCE: you’d better not allow both detergent and water to enter the laptop, or the computer would be physically damaged.


Sell Laptop

Selling anything online is more convenient, and you’ll likely be tempted to advertise your old laptop on a website rather than organize a garage sale. Make sure the website is trusted, though, and carefully negotiate all the terms with the buyer before you ship the device. You can never be too careful when you’re doing business online.

Thinking of selling your old laptop? When you think about it, you’ll see that there’s nothing special that you need to do before you sell your laptop. Simply apply some common sense, and you and your data will be safe. Are you planning to prepare your laptop to be sold or prepare it for donation? If yes, try to make some or all of these preparations, which would help you sell it at higher price or donate it without worrying about privacy leakage. So, now you are surely know what to do before selling your laptop.

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