What is the best way to safely and completely erase all data from old laptops?

I have a couple of old laptops lying around and want to throw them away, but have been cautious to do so because of privacy concerns of data still on the hard drives. What is the best way to wipe them? Or should I take them out and physically destroy them?

They are running windows vista and 10 I think.

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@Delphia
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1•1 year ago
This is the correct answer. Give it a format just to be sure then donate it to a recycling center.

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