Electronics Recycling

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

(be sure to remove your hard drive)

Good point which brings up another question: what do you do with the hard drive? I don't want to go so far as to disassemble it to remove and then shred the platters. Any suggestions on this?


ETA: this reminds me of a lesson I learned that could have been VERY painful. Many years ago (mid-90's) , I took a notebook computer to a trusted repair place (I knew the guy personally). It was one of the first Mac notebooks (Powerbook 140). Since the motherboard was fried and it wasn't worth paying to replace it, I told them to wipe the HD and toss it.

A couple of months later, I received a call from the FBI (). Bottom line was that someone (it turned out to be the UPS delivery driver at the place that fixed my computer), pulled my notebook out of the trash, shipped it to his buddy in Washington who opened the box of a NEW notebook and placed my computer in the box which was then delivered to some governmental agency. They did full forensics on the hard drive (which had been wiped, but obviously not as cleanly as it should have been!) and were able to pull my name, etc. off the computer. Hence why they were calling me.

The agent hinted that they hadn't thought I was involved (which, obviously I wasn't), but I was still a little stressed by the situation. I later learned that this was a ring involving several UPS personnel and others that was eventually broken up.

So now, I am VERY careful about disposing of hard drives (as in, I don't )

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Good point which brings up another question: what do you do with the hard drive? I don't want to go so far as to disassemble it to remove and then shred the platters. Any suggestions on this?

Magnets

sledgehammer

Or buy some software that will really super wipe the drive.

I prefer the sledgehammer method.

Or keep it, buy a case for it and use it as an external drive for your new machine.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

Magnets

sledgehammer

Or buy some software that will really super wipe the drive.

I prefer the sledgehammer method.

Or keep it, buy a case for it and use it as an external drive for your new machine.

Apple has built in to their OS an optional "secure empty trash" function which basically writes nonsense data over the files being deleted.

But I have some bare SCSI drives that I want to discard. Unfortunately, I don't have any working computers with SCSI drives or ports (I do have a SCSI external enclosure). I could probably get an adapter I guess.

[lizziebith]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

<snip>
Or keep it, buy a case for it and use it as an external drive for your new machine.

That's what I do...I have every hard drive I've ever owned...it's sometimes fun to poke through them and giggle at what I once thought was so shiny...