Kansas State University

IT summer cleanup, cleanout tips

Submitted by K-State IT editor

1. Clean your computer area, computer keyboard and mouse surfaces.
2. Clean out your paper files.
   a. Recycle non-security paper through K-State Recycling.
   b. For security-related papers, see Sanitizing Paper Storage Media.
3. Dispose of hard drives or tapes securely by call the Recycling Center at 785-532-6446 to schedule pick-up, or arrange a time to deliver them to the Recycling Center. (See New device simplifies secure disposal of computer hard drives, tapes and also Sanitizing Removable Storage Media.)
4. Recycle your K-State Online course for next semester. See Reuse your course for fall semester.
5. Clean up webpages you maintain. Use w3schools.com's free Web Page Validation tool to validate webpage HTML, CSS, XML, etc. for broken links, correct code, and more.
6. Delete digital files you no longer need. Make sure you don't have files with security-related data on your computers.
7. Back up digital files you want to keep, on external hard drives and/or free online storage spaces like Dropbox and the Zimbra Briefcase. See basic IT security practices for backing up files (#10). Also see recent IT articles on the free Dropbox tool and free file storage in the “Briefcase” in K-State Zimbra webmail.