How do I dispose of laptop?

Treacle_2-2

Hi There
I have a laptop I never use and was just wondering the best way to dispose of it - freecycle maybe? As far as I know there is nothing wrong with it except for a couple of letters missing of a couple of keys! It's a Dell laptop that I've had for around 6-8 years. How would I get rid of any information on it before disposing of it please?
Thanks
T

purt

Try Ebay first. You may make a few quid from it. As for the hard drive contents, you could try reformatting it.

pcombo

Take a hammer to it . Then set it on fire then stick it in water smash it some more then bin it job done.

Treacle_2-2

Sounds a great idea, now where's that hammer.....

Money_Grabber13579

Yeah to be totally sure, you'd need to destroy the hard drive. However, you can get programs that will have a fairly good go without physical destruction.

scottishblondie

physical destruction is overkill to get rid of info! i reformat the drive, followed by using dban (Darik's Boot and Nuke), then do a clean install of the operating system that came with the machine. that should be perfectly sufficient.

then i'd suggest either ebay if you want some pennies for it, or freecycle. there may also be some organisation in your area that takes on old machines, refurbs them and gives them to charitable causes. might be worth looking into if you want a warm fuzzy glow

Patrick20

Can i have the H B and N keys? mines have fallen off.:p

davb

You could use something like DBAN
It will do a pretty reasonable job of wiping it, but it will take a long time to run.

The other option would be to remove the hard drive, and sell the laptop without it - that way you still get to use the hammer