Security aspect of junking old PC

Jolanta_Nowak

What do I need to do prior to taking the beast to the dump?

custardy

if your dumping it and really are worried then just open the hard drive and dump the HD platters loose.
there are plenty of softwares out for formatting HD's to a secure level.
or just use a powerful magnet ot wipe it.
is the pc still working?

olly300

Open it up and take out the hard disk.

Then physically destroy the hard disk (break it up into bits) and dispose of it separately.

LuciferTDark

OR open it up take out the hard drive & install it into the new machine as a second drive.

Jolanta_Nowak

The pc 'works' but is riddled with software faults to the extent that you're lucky if the OS loads one time in 20.

I hope I can recognise the HD when I open up the thing. What do I look for, gents?

LuciferTDark

Can't you clean the hard drive & reinstall the OS if it still works? or is it so old that it's not worth the effort?

Jolanta_Nowak

LuciferTDark wrote: »

Can't you clean the hard drive & reinstall the OS if it still works? or is it so old that it's not worth the effort?

It's already had a working life of ten years. It probably has more than the odd unwelcome visitor on board. My new pc has all the drive space I'm ever likely to need.

devizes18193

instead of dumping it when the drives are gone stick it on freecycle

isofa

Was just going to say the same! Freecycle

You can't miss the HD it's a solid silver block with a ribbon cable and 4 coloured power cabling coming from it, usually above or below the CD drive.

nickbeee

If you are worried about data security (and you should be!) then there are plenty of free hard drive wiping programs. I use one called DBAN that you can set up to boot from a floppy or CD drive.

Be warned there are enterprising people who collect old hard drives to practice data recovery and computer forensics. It is surprising what is left on the disk if you just re-format and re-install windows on it.

:eek::eek:

Jolanta_Nowak

kltpzyxm wrote: »

My preferred software is IBM "Secure Data Disposal" - erases to US Dept. of Defense standards....its a free download here

All of which assumes you can boot up the computer in the first place.