Disposal / recycle scheme - old pc and mac laptop

yoni_one

I have an old pc / monitior and a mac laptop. Neither of them work and have both been replaced.

Before I take them to the tip I just wondered if there is a scheme that can reuse some or all of the parts?

I can't get to the info on the hard drive to even attempt to delete the data (wont even power up) and even if I could my technical knowledge / understanding is less than very very basic.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

fiddiwebb

Are there any recycling scemes in your area?

You could try contacting one of them and asking if they know who would take computers.

As to your HD it depends if you have any information about yourself on it, I would be tempted to remove the hard drive and destroy it.

isofa

www.freecycle.org

Remove the HD and give away on freecycle, there are groups in most areas of the UK. Depending on the type of Mac laptop you might even be able to get a few quid for it on eBay too, Macs retain value very well, the PC on the other hand is likely to be worthless.

yoni_one

fiddiwebb wrote: »

Are there any recycling scemes in your area?

You could try contacting one of them and asking if they know who would take computers.

As to your HD it depends if you have any information about yourself on it, I would be tempted to remove the hard drive and destroy it.

Thanks, it didn't occur to me to contact the local recycling depot attached to the refuse section. DOH!

isofa wrote: »

www.freecycle.org

Remove the HD and give away on freecycle, there are groups in most areas of the UK. Depending on the type of Mac laptop you might even be able to get a few quid for it on eBay too, Macs retain value very well, the PC on the other hand is likely to be worthless.

I am a member of my local freecycle and have given tons of things away but the problem here is that I wouldn't know what my HD looks like if it bit me on my floppy, seriously not a clue so wouldn't know what to remove, or how to get to it to remove it.

Unfortunately the Mac is beyond economical repair, I took it to an apple shop a couple of years ago and was quoted several hundreds of dollars, it has been collecting dust since and now I can't even power it up to access data to delete.

Thanks for your ideas.

Marty_J

Sell the Mac on eBay. People buy them for parts, and even broken ones can sell for quite a lot of money (depending on the model of course).

yoni_one

Marty_J wrote: »

Sell the Mac on eBay. People buy them for parts, and even broken ones can sell for quite a lot of money (depending on the model of course).

Is it safe to do this when I can't access the data to delete it?

Marty_J

yoni_one wrote: »

Is it safe to do this when I can't access the data to delete it?

Should be a trivial matter to pull the HDD out, and it probably won't affect the price too much. I'm guessing it's not very big, and the market for secondhand HDDs is rather limited.

isofa

yoni_one wrote: »

Thanks, it didn't occur to me to contact the local recycling depot attached to the refuse section. DOH!

I am a member of my local freecycle and have given tons of things away but the problem here is that I wouldn't know what my HD looks like if it bit me on my floppy, seriously not a clue so wouldn't know what to remove, or how to get to it to remove it.

Unfortunately the Mac is beyond economical repair, I took it to an apple shop a couple of years ago and was quoted several hundreds of dollars, it has been collecting dust since and now I can't even power it up to access data to delete.

Thanks for your ideas.

In a PC tower, open up the case, the hard disc is will be a solid metal silvery oblong object approx size 4" x 1" × 6" connected by 2 cables, one a wide ribbon cable and another power cable. You can't miss it, it's usually at the front of the case, near the CD / floppy drive(s). Unplug both the cables and unscrew the 4 holding bolts at the sides and remove it.

In a Mac tower it'll be the same, but in a laptop, it'll be smaller and accessible usually by a plate at the bottom of the machine with a screw (why not tell us the model and we can help more?). In some laptops it might be accessible under the keyboard instead, it all depends on the model.

But again, you can't miss it, it'll be solid metal silvery oblong object again, but a bit smaller this time approx 2.8" x 0.5" x 4", this time it'll be with a smaller flat ribbon cable which will pull out, and it'll probably not be screwed into the laptop, just clicked in and pulling and access tab will remove it from the machine.

(Note some larger modern HDs are black in colour rather than silver, but same dimensions roughly!)

macman

Laptop hard drive looks like this:
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/wp-images/external-laptop-harddrive-2.jpg
Chuck the PC but not the Mac-lot's of demand for parts even if it is not economically repairable.

bubblegumcola

When I got rid of our old PC I took the hard drive out, tried to smash it to bits with a hammer to destroy it...was very difficult but I got there in the end. Do you only have to remove the hard drive to make it 'safe' so to speak. I spent ages as I didn't really know what I was doing at the time and pulled bits of circuit board apart and hit them with a hammer!!!! Then I took it to my local recycling depot at the council.

macman

You don't need to 'pulverise' the hard drive, one nail driven through it is sufficient, all you are doing is preventing the platters from rotating.
Not necessary to destroy anything else, all data is on the HD.