Take out the hard drive before recycling!

Melissa22_Mum

Read this in a paper a few days old so apologies if this is a repeat. I'm sure you techies already know but if you send your computer off to be recycled always ensure the hard drive is completely wiped. Apparently somewhere in Africa, not sure where, where they get sent to for recycling people are accessing files on the hard drives that haven't been completely wiped ans retrieving bank account details and personal info and selling it on for £20.00.:eek:

It suggested to take the drive out and just keep it if your unsure.

Kilty_2

Yeah, saw that on BBC News, guy bought a HDD in Nigeria for £15, went to someone's house somewhere in England and said to them "Hello, you are Mr x and have a bank account with y, account number abc" :eek:

catch22

If you format it beforehand, won't that clean the HDD?

IvanOpinion

There are various shareware and free ware utilities that will safely and permanently delete/shred files. I use axcrypt and eraser. I am sure others will have their favourites .. do a google search but make sure that it has the ability of erasing free space as well as files

Ivan

ianian99

catch22 wrote:

If you format it beforehand, won't that clean the HDD?

no, you can still retreave the info after format

IvanOpinion

All a hard disk format does is wipe the file allocation tables .. ALL the data is still on the disk drive and easily recoverable

Ivan

marksward

I buy second hand drives quite often. You should see some of the stuff people have left on them.

Formatting alone does not remove your'e data. Use of the free/shareware wiping tools to be sure.

Pobby

marksward wrote:

I buy second hand drives quite often. You should see some of the stuff people have left on them.

Formatting alone does not remove your'e data. Use of the free/shareware wiping tools to be sure.

And what exactly do prople leave on there----lol.

marksward

browsing history is always a good one and in itself gives alot away about someone. Some of the other stuff makes you blush - buy hey it saves me downloading it

I run wiping software (even on 'brand new' drives) just in case. Its also a good way to test a drive out as well.

Quasar

This is of great interest to me. My oldest laptop (bought in 2000, Window 98!) is still in good condition so I kept is as back up, only using it now and then to install updates etc.

However I keep backup details of all the addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers of 200 or so of my staff, which of course I want to keep as confidential as possible.

I never thought there was software that can wipe out a hard drive, so I was thinking of just smashing it when the sad day came... so I'm grateful to OP for this thread.

L400ras

Advice for anyone who needs to get rid of a pc;
1) if selling/giving away , remove hard drive and replace with brand new one.
2) if disposing of - remove hard drive

in both cases you should shred the files, or (like me) take a sledge to it and smash into lots of bits, then dispose of several bits each week in your bin. im sure some of my hard drive plates got burried in the garden as well.

thats the only way i was sure of no one pssing around with my old data