Lenovo S10E, S9E manual Deleting the data from the hard disk is not easy

Notice on deleting data from your hard disk drive or solid state drive

As computers spread into every corner of life, they process more and more information. The data on your computer, some of which is sensitive, is stored on a storage device, either a hard disk drive (HDD) or the solid state drive (SSD). Before you dispose of, sell, or hand over your computer, make sure to delete data stored on it.

Handing your computer over to someone else without deleting the loaded software, such as operating systems and application software, may even violate License Agreements. You are advised to check the terms and conditions of those Agreements.

Deleting the data from the hard disk is not easy.

There are methods that seem to delete the data:

vMove the data to the recycle bin, and then choose the Empty recycle bin command.

vUse the Delete command.

vFormat your HDD or SSD, using the software for initializing it.

vUsing the recovery program, provided by Lenovo, bring the HDD or the SSD back to factory-ship state.

These operations, however, only change the file allocation of the data; they do not delete the data itself. In other words, the data retrieval processing is disabled under an operating system such as Windows. The data is still there, even though it seems to be lost. Thus, it is sometimes possible to read the data by use of special software for data recovery. There is a risk that people of bad faith may read and misuse the critical data on HDDs or SSDs for unexpected purposes

152Lenovo® IdeaPad™ S9e and S10e User Guide