What to do with old pc's

poppellerant

I forgot to answer the OP's question!

Remove the drive with a screwdriver - usually a Phillips/cross one. There will be about 4-6 mounting screws holding it in place. Undo both cables to the harddrive (data and power), then undo the screws. The drive should fall or slide out, so be prepared in case it falls out!

All you should need to do is connect it to a harddrive caddy (as Im just careful as suggested) which should then allow you access the drive by plugging it into one of your current computer's USB ports.

If you want to destroy the drive, you will need torx screwdrivers to do it the gentle way. Or an axe if you want to do it the brutal way!

closed

you could probably cobble together one or more perfectly working machines out of what you've got.

mttylad

There is also likely to be a screw under the label.

Some nice magnets in there too.

wik

Thank you all for replys....

I shall have a look at doing the removing...

I dont think i can blend the remains together, the 2 that got zapped - the IT man who looked at them said the mother board was fried....

Magenta

I have just bought a new PC tower and was debating the best thing to do with the old one!
I think I will be going down the hammer and axe route with it!!:D:D

Anyone got any useful suggestions for getting rid of the mountain of back -up discs I have for my old PC? (They are not useable again I think which is a great pity):(

googler

Magenta wrote: »

I have just bought a new PC tower and was debating the best thing to do with the old one!
I think I will be going down the hammer and axe route with it

WHY ?

If you're worried about your data, follow the advice above to remove the HDD with your data, and dispose of the rest via Gumtree or eBay as 'spares/repair' or 'for parts'

What on earth would be the purpose of taking a hammer and axe to the motherboard, the case, or the power supply ???

googler

Magenta wrote: »

Anyone got any useful suggestions for getting rid of the mountain of back -up discs I have for my old PC? (They are not useable again I think which is a great pity):(

My local recycling site has a 'hard plastics' bin for exactly this purpose. You could look for one in your area.

Ximian

Depending on the hardware spec, you could find some interesting uses for old PC's with the addition of some parts such as a hard drive/graphics card (HDMI) etc.. for example: build a NAS box, build a home media player running XBMC, install Linux (webserver, FTP server, firewall etc..)

Dave_C_2

Magenta wrote: »

Anyone got any useful suggestions for getting rid of the mountain of back -up discs I have for my old PC? (They are not useable again I think which is a great pity):(

Assuming CD or DVD backup disks, any new PC will still be able to read them.
Dave

Magenta

googler wrote: »

WHY ?

If you're worried about your data, follow the advice above to remove the HDD with your data, and dispose of the rest via Gumtree or eBay as 'spares/repair' or 'for parts'

What on earth would be the purpose of taking a hammer and axe to the motherboard, the case, or the power supply ???

I may well do that instead:)