Fair enough, but you'll get a lot less if the laptop has no drive, so you could do as the other comment here notes, which is replace it with a cheap drive. Howe

Fair enough, but you'll get a lot less if the laptop has no drive, so you could do as the other comment here notes, which is replace it with a cheap drive. However, I emphasize that if you don't want to do that or are short enough on cash that you can't even buy a replacement drive (it happens), encrypting the whole drive with a free tool like veracrypt or bitlocker is absolutely as secure for protecting residual data. Nobody who buys that shit is going to break through 256 bit AES for your favorite nude photos and love notes!