Disposing a PC safely!

DUNDALKSPUR_2

I have an old Dell that has died on me.Just wondered if anyone knows of charity that would take it off my hands for free and erase my hard drive .

scotty_591

Hi there

I don't know of any charities I am afriad (maybe see what Google throws up).

As for the Hard Drive I reccomend holding onto it and not disposing of it. As even when a Hard Drive has been erased and formatted, it can still hold some personal information.

Also, if you dispose of it without getting it erased, someone with recovery software might be able to recover the contents.

Hope this helps

debitcardmayhem

Take out the hard drive , but of course someone on here may be able to give it a kiss of life, depends on "died"

Robisere

The price of hard drives and many more PC components, has gone through the roof, thanks to (a) the floods in Asia and (b) the tendency of some suppliers to profit excessively from the stock they already held. Are you absolutely certain that you will not need the drive in the next 6 months?

If so, there are many ways to erase a drive. Google for <drive eraser> and see what comes up. If you cannot access the information, there are 2 certain methods to destroy the drive and its information.

1 - Goggles and a large hammer, on a hard surface. Shatter it, recycle the pieces at your local dump/recycling facility. No, wear the goggles! There will be a scattering of sharp, metal pieces.
2 - If you know someone locally with a gas welding plant, melt it down. That is my preferred method, no technology can recover that.

santer_2

Ask Sims and TBC for details of their data purging, by e-mail preferably so you have something in writing

http://www.itforcharities.co.uk/pcs.htm

Check the ones local to you as they may take it without the hard drive

What sort of computers are useful for charities?

In general, if your computer is older than a Pentium PC then it is unlikely that a charity will be able to use it. Most charities want to be able to run as uptodate software as possible and that needs newer computers.

This isn't a strict rule, just a guideline.

http://www.itforcharities.co.uk/donorinf.htm

I would be reluctant to let a PC go anywhere with a hard drive in it