Old Computers

cashidiot

I have two old computers which i no longer use, one is an apple mac which at the time of purchase was state of the art (15 years ago) and the other a pc pentium III 400mhz (about 8 years old). I was just wondering if there were any local charities in northern ireland or other similar organisations that could put these to use. Seems a shame to send them to the dump, im sure others have been in this situation before. Any ideas?

blueberrypie

There's a guy on the Belfast Freecycle list who posts regularly looking for old computers - I believe he uses them for running training courses or something like that. I can probably find his email address if you want. Not sure if he can use Macs, but again, you'd probably find someone on Freecycle who could use it.

SaveMeTheMoney

I gave my last one to Saint Vincent de Paul, they were only too happy to take it and pass it on - once I'd wiped all my data off it of course!!!

BigAl94

The only safe way to wipe data off an old PC is to remove the hard drive and destroy it.

annie-c

I removed the hard drive from my old (defunct) PC and then advertised the remains on my local freecycle group. A local lady took it to sell at a boot sale in aid of her charity. Apparently she's quite a tough cookie and gets quite a lot even for 'junk' ones because she knows that there are always PC buffs who will pay for them and bring money into the charity.

bigw81

If you go onto the Freecycle website and look up N Ireland Region, you can 'offer' the item free to anyone who can make good use of it - bet you'll get plenty of responses!

Pretani

If there's a local residents group or association near you, they should be able to take it off your hands and make good use of it. Even the local community centres take in old computers for their computer classes etc

manalive_2

Maybe try these guys, they are a Belfast based charity that recycle old pcs and send them out to schools and colleges in Africa:

http://www.camara.ie/

chunter

I've moved a couple out to local creches.

SaveMeTheMoney

BigAl94 wrote: »

The only safe way to wipe data off an old PC is to remove the hard drive and destroy it.

I know that to destroy a hard drive properly you are advised to smash the hard drive to pieces and pore acid over it. I thought this a little extreme and then SVP would hardly want the computer - I weighed up the doing something good against the someone maybe seeing my holiday pictures.:money:

shaz77_2

What if someone is trying to make a few pounds from their old PC and CRT monitors, are there any options available to them?