Currys recycling

Sncjw

I am a big worrier.

I have had laptops for least 20 years and the other 15 years both knackered and havent been switched on for years. I finally got rid of them in currys and they say they will.wipe data. I am not even sure what's on there. Husband thinks they will just rip them apart snd get the precious metals out.

Im.wondering can currys acsess the data or do they just do a straight wipe out even though it won't turn on. Like can they attach the hard drive to something? 

I am a worrier.

Thanks 

On-the-coast

Yes they could read them if the disks themselves are functional (not the laptops). 

If you’re lucky they’ll “wipe” them by hitting them with a hammer (the disks) which you probably should have done. 

Almost certainly no one is going to check old disks and they’ll probably be scrap-recycled. 

Peter999_2

Hi, I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially as it's too late now anyway as they've got the laptops.

If you haven't used them for years is there anything that was on there that is still valid anyway, financially wise?

Maybe on your next laptop, if it is windows, use some sort of encryption like BitLocker to hinder anyone trying to snoop on your data.

I physically destroy any hard drives on any laptop I send for recycling.   If I give it away to friends/family, I zero the hard drives and install windows fresh for them.

In these days of practically anything confidential I have being put on the cloud or on a local server there isn't much actually on my laptops anyway like the old days.

Sncjw

I couldn't turn the dam things on! They are least 20 years old. 

Eyeful

Sncjw said:

I couldn't turn the dam things on! They are least 20 years old. 

1. 20 year old not working computers with rotating hard disk.
You could have looked for the computer model on YouTube.
There would be some videos showing you how to remove the old hard disk.
Once you removed, you could have either (a) drill holes in the disks or (b) smash the disk with a hammer.

2. Your new computer
Suggest you now encrypt all sensitive information you store on your computer or in the cloud.
You can find different ways of how to do this on YouTube.
One simple method you might think of using is Cryptomator:   https://cryptomator.org/
Again see YouTube videos on how to use it.

PHK

Don’t worry, when recycled they use a brute force erasure (either expose to a strong magnetic field or literally smashed to pieces)

it’s also unlikely the drives work anymore due to to the age and long period of misuse. 

PRAISETHESUN

Bit of a moot point now really. In theory yes they could remove the drive and make a copy of the data (assuming it still works) but in reality the likelyhood of them bothering is extremely minor. I wouldn't worry.

For future I'd recommend doing the suggested steps above. Encrypt the data whilst you're using the drives, and when it comes time to dispose of them next time, physically disabled them before you hand them over.

Ergates

Sncjw said:

I couldn't turn the dam things on! They are least 20 years old. 

Whilst, in theory, someone who really wanted to could extract data from the old hard drives, it is *astronomically* unlikely anyone would bother.

Scanning through old, randomly selected hard drives in the hope of finding something of value would be a massive waste of time.

Sncjw

Thanks all for your help