How do i safely get rid of an old laptop/desktop?

gjchester

anewhope wrote: »

There's no point in multiple writes. The data is irrecoverable unless you know specifically what you are looking for and you have the time to spend recovering 1kb per hour, which I assume that everyone neither has the skill nor patience to do. Multiple overwrites are pointless.

Your probalby right, but there has been work on extracting data from residual magnetic patterns the the disk platter. However it's highly theoretical and I doubt commercially viable (although the Goverment may have the time, patience and computer power to do it) for anyone to really think about. Overwrites are overkill but thats what the US DOD recommends and pretty much what everyone follows.