topic Re: Recycling old laptops in Electronics

Recycling old laptops

bargainsgirl — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 01:24:13 GMT

I have an old macbook and an old chrome laptop. How do I make them safe to recycle? I heard of removing the hard drive but have no idea how! Any help would be appreciated!

Re: Recycling old laptops

SXMGirl — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 01:37:36 GMT

@bargainsgirl, I just took an old laptop that no longer worked to my local computer store. The owner will demolish the hard drive (I could do that but it is hard to find a place to recycle) and take care of everything at no charge. That is the easiest.

Re: Recycling old laptops

MillCreekPat — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 01:40:11 GMT

Apple is having a special now, where you can trade in your old equipment for a gift card. They'll transfer your info to the "cloud", and recycle the laptops. I haven't done it yet, but have 2 old mac books, I'm thinking of trading in on a new one.

Re: Recycling old laptops

gizmogal — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 01:50:29 GMT

If you open the case (usually screws at the underside give access to the “guts”), you can get access to the hard drive. Ideally, you remove it, by unplugging any ribbon cable that might be attached to it and unscrewing it from its housing. Then you just retain possession or kill its contents so it can’t be hacked or revived.

Let’s assume that’s easy for me to tell you, but hard for you to do, not meaning any insult. The idea here is to render the hard drive unusable, whether removed or not. So there’s lots of ways to kill it and still be able to dispose of the devices intact.

Any big powerful magnet will readily ruin a hard drive. Go to a hardware store and get any heavy magnet. Spend 10 minutes scanning or massaging the underside of your laptops with the magnet. Nice slow sweeps. If you then try turning on the machine and it fails to boot or function, you’ll know you’ve sufficiently erased the hard drive and the data can not be retrieved. Magnets are death to laptop hard drives but will not have any effect on a tablet. If you want to kill a tablet it’s another subject.

You can also ruin a laptop hard drive by soaking the whole shebang underwater in the tub or in a deep sink or even inside an idle washing machine tub overnight. Throw some bleach or vinegar or even salt in the water so it really gets corrosive in there. When you ruin the hard drive, it is safe because the data dies with it.

Don’t worry about the wet components! Drain the dead thing as best you can, sit it on a towel for a day or two, and give it over to any place that accepts used electronics for disposal. They’re not as interested in recycling the parts in any kind of good condition as they are in just keeping that stuff out of landfills. Plus, some is toxic and needs proper handling.

If you’re willing to keep an eye on it so there is no actual fire, you can put it in a very warm oven for a while to pretty much corrupt it thoroughly inside. Freezing may not work—electronics hold up against cold much better than against heat.

Your job is to kill the existing data or control it by retaining the hard drive after removing it. But killing the data by any means is the idea. Recycling is not for reuse, but for proper disposal. As long as the data is gone, you’re safe and ready for disposal.

I’ve also taken old laptops to a parking lot and run them over a few times. Probably crushes the platters in the hard drive so they can’t get the data out of it. Taking a hammer to it is not recommended. Too hard to do real damage and you won’t hurt it enough to kill the drive. 😡

Hope I've helped.

Re: Recycling old laptops

jackthebear — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 02:52:16 GMT

@bargainsgirl wrote:
I have an old macbook and an old chrome laptop. How do I make them safe to recycle? I heard of removing the hard drive but have no idea how! Any help would be appreciated!

Go to YouTube and search

it’s simple to do.

once the drive is out. Hammer at it until you hear that it’s in little pieces

Re: Recycling old laptops

Mz iMac — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 02:56:20 GMT

@bargainsgirl

Go to YouTube tutorials for detailed video instructions on how to remove your HD. "A picture ~~video~~ is worth a thousand words."

You do not have to let Apple put your info into the "Cloud." They will remove the HD for you then give to you to destroy (take a hammer to it!).

If you live in NJ, you can take your Mac to Experimac.

Re: Recycling old laptops

sunshine45 — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 03:22:21 GMT

just took three laptops recently to best buy. they removed the hard drives for me and gave them to me and then they disposed of/recycled the rest of the computer. there was no charge.

Re: Recycling old laptops

walkingal — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 10:11:27 GMT

@sunshine45 wrote:
just took three laptops recently to best buy. they removed the hard drives for me and gave them to me and then they disposed of/recycled the rest of the computer. there was no charge.

This sounds like the easiest solution to me. But the last time I purchased a new laptop at Best Buy, they took my old laptop, but never suggested or offered to return the hard drive. And I never thought to ask for it back. The way some people are always buying electronics, I always wonder what they do with their old stuff!

Re: Recycling old laptops

151949 — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 12:22:30 GMT

In my chromebook, under settings, is a tab - "Return to original settings". So you can put anything you want to keep up in the cloud then this setting will wipe the computer clean. I don't know if that is only on a chromebook or all computers.

Re: Recycling old laptops

knittykitty — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:44:45 GMT

most electronics, inc cell phones, have the option of reverting to factory settings. that deletes any changes you make to factory settings, but does not fully, completely erase your data. that's why the FBI can 'get' info that has been 'deleted' from phones and computers.

to be sure, follow advice given by previous posters.

Re: Recycling old laptops

151949 — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 19:18:47 GMT

@knittykitty Once you destroy the hard drive the computer can no longer be recycled. THe OP asked how to RECYCLE. Sometimes people want to give the computer to their relative or friend to use once they are done using it. For instance we gave an outdated compuer to my cousin for use in his business , keeping the books. He doesn't get on the internet with it, just needed to be able to insert his cd in and use his bookeeping program. I know he isn't going to get some hacker to go thru the history of any data that is left on the computer once I took it to original settings.

Re: Recycling old laptops

BirkiLady — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 20:37:21 GMT

@151949You are not removing data when you click "Return to Original Settings". You are simply going back to the original configurations set by the company for a beginner to use the computer.

Any data you have added to that computer is not deleted when you "Return to Original Settings". Be very careful about advising others; it is incorrect.

Re: Recycling old laptops

BirkiLady — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 20:47:57 GMT

@bargainsgirlComputers are both recycled and reused. Recycled means they are dismantled for parts and the magnets inside. Reused means they will be refurbished and resold or provided to another person for use. @151949 seems to think all recycled computers will be put back in use. Most will not be used again because software will not support older computers. Thus, recycled computers are usually used for their parts and destroying the harddrive is the safest idea to ensure your data never reaches the wrong hands.

Re: Recycling old laptops

Zhills — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 23:20:55 GMT

If the computer still works well, replacing a hard driveb because your removed one, is cheap. They are less than $50 at retail.