Clean Your Computer To Recycle It

Find out what UB services you can use to clean off your UB-owned or personally owned computer before recycling it.

Operating System: All

Applies To: UB students, faculty, staff, alumni, retirees and volunteers

Last Updated: September 9, 2016

Cleaning Off Your UB-Owned Computer

  1. Any UB-owned electronic equipment which plugs into a wall, has a cord, battery or circuit board can be recycled. Ensure any sensitive data (Regulated Private or FERPA controlled student data) on the machines is completely removed from disk drives before the equipment leaves your control.  
  2. Physically destroy disk drives. You receive a certificate of destruction for any drives that you request be physically destroyed (inside the monthly report tab generated by Maven Technologies with C7 certificate of destruction).
  3. UB-owned electronics equipment is collected and consolidated by UB at the Beane Center. Maven Technologies picks up all equipment at the Beane Center.

Cleaning Off Your Personally Owned Computer

Make sure you securely clean any data off the hard disk with DBAN software before donating or recycling equipment.

Wipe Your Smartphone Before Recycling

You should erase (wipe) your smartphone before you recycle it.

Wipe Your Smartphone using Exchange Mail

Important:

This wipes your entire phone, not just your Exchange mail on the phone. Note: Your Exchange email will not be deleted from your Exchange mailbox on the Exchange server.

  1. Open Outlook Web Access (OWA) on your computer, not phone, at https://exchowa.buffalo.edu and log in with your UBITName and password and the Captcha displayed on the page.
  2. Select the gear icon > Options > See All Options.
  3. Select Phone.
  4. Select the Mobile Devices tab.
  5. Click on the smartphone you want to remove.
  6. Click Wipe Device.
  7. Status will change to “pending”. The next time the device connects to the service provider's network or a wireless network, it will receive the wipe command and erase all data.
  8. You will receive an automated email once the device is wiped.
Wipe an iOS Device
Wipe an Android Device

See Also

Still need help?

Contact the UBIT Help Center.