Question about selling a pc

[Injas]

Hello. I am thinking about selling my desktop pc.

If i remove the HDD and SSD from my pc is it possible to restore any file/info that have been on the pc then?

[chazus]

Are you asking if the person buying the computer can restore the files if you remove the HDD/SSD? If thats the case, no. They need the drives.

[Injas]

So there is no way for whoever buy the pc to find my email info or whatever if i remove the hdd/sdd?

Thanks for the reply.

[Djinni]

Word of advise though, buy another HDD/SSD to put in it. Very few people are interested in buying a PC that doesn't have a storage drive to put an OS on.
Obviously if its intended buyer is going to use it for scrap / spares / components only and not as a whole unit that's a different matter but if its Joe Average looking for a cheap PC, they aren't going to want to install a drive themselves.

[Septik]

correct, your information is stored on those drives you removed. information is also temporarily loaded into RAM when the computers working, but that is all lost when the power is shut off.

[glo]

I'd just sell it with the SSD. Format it, and you'll be fine. File recovery on SSDs isn't like traditional HDDs, it's quite literally impossible AFAIK due to their architecture.

[deadman1]

If you are really concerned about your information then you could buy new hard drives for the person you are selling it too, but formatting should be good enough to get rid of everything.

[Nellah]

I'd just sell it with the SSD. Format it, and you'll be fine. File recovery on SSDs isn't like traditional HDDs, it's quite literally impossible AFAIK due to their architecture.

A format should work, but a secure erase certainly will. Sell with the SSD, get a newer/faster/better one for yourself.

[Todd Duval]

If you're not including any of the hard drives, then it's impossible for them to recover data from those drives.

If you're super paranoid about the data that might have been in the RAM, maybe run a RAM test overnight, which you should probably be doing if you're selling a computer anyway.

Just ensure you don't give them anything stupid, like a USB Flash drive still connected to the computer, or a CD/DVD/Bluray disc that may still be in the system.

[Warrax]

+1 for selling the SSD with the computer, it's a good opportunity to buy a better SSD if you plan to buy a new computer with the money.