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: February 9, 2023
Cleaning Off Your UB-Owned Computer
- 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.
- Once the items are removed from UB’s assets, you may place a work order to “dispose” of the materials which will result in a pick-up by UB Facilities. At that point, items are brought to a secure area and every few weeks SUNNKING comes to the campus to pick up items.
- As part of the contract with SUNNKING all intellectual property and software is removed from hard drives, and the university receives a certificate of destruction related to the pick-up (the university does not receive individual certificates for items).
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.
Important:
This wipes your entire phone, not just your UBmail (Exchange Online) mail on the phone. Your email will not be deleted from your UBmail (Exchange Online) mailbox.
- Open Outlook using your web browser at https://outlook.office.com, not your computer
- Select the gear (Settings) icon at the top
- Click View all Outlook settings
- Select your mobile device, then choose the Wipe all data icon
- The next time the device attempts to connect to the service provider's network or a wi-fi connection it will receive the wipe command and erase all data
See Also