topic Re: Old laptops in Electronics

Old laptops

bargainsgirl — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 13:50:37 GMT

What do you do with old laptops? I know they should be "cleared" but how does one do that? If you take to a recycle facility do they wipe it clean for you?

Re: Old laptops

jackthebear — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 13:57:25 GMT

@bargainsgirl wrote:
What do you do with old laptops? I know they should be "cleared" but how does one do that? If you take to a recycle facility do they wipe it clean for you?

ask google/edge or your browser of choice

Re: Old laptops

gizmogal — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 14:06:06 GMT

I take a screw driver and find the screws at the bottom and open it up.Then I rip oput the hard drive. Without the hard drive, it is safe to recycle. Destroy the hard drive by drowning it in the sink or bathtub, or running it over with your car to crush it. Then you can throw that part away.

Recycling centers do not "clear" the laptop. As long as the hard drive is not destroyed or removed, the laptop has your valuable data in it. Any computer shop can remove it for you for a small fee. It only takes a few minutes.

Some say a strong magnet will kill it by eerasing or nullifying the data, but that is not correct. Magnets are not thorough and any data that remains may be usable.

You can drown the entire laptop to ruin it, or you can run the whole thing over with the car to crush it instead of just the hard drive.

If you can find the way to set it back to factory settings, then that is also effective, but it is not always available, depending on the operating system of the laptop.

Hope I've helped.

Re: Old laptops

LindaSal — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 14:36:41 GMT

My husband removes the hard drive and destroys it with a hammer. Then the rest of the computer goes to the electronic recycling center in our state.

Re: Old laptops

Boxerdoglover — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 15:11:00 GMT

1. There are programs that will wipe it look for something that mentions DOD wipe.

2. Running over it with your car will NOT destroy the hard drive

3. Drill press works

4. Hammer works

5 drowning doesn't really work unless you wait until it corrodes

6. They are made to survive and even a hammer is a lot of energy.

I opt for the disk wipe software. Used it in the financial world and it WIPES.

Re: Old laptops

x Hedge — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 15:23:43 GMT

@gizmogal wrote:
I take a screw driver and find the screws at the bottom and open it up.Then I rip oput the hard drive. Without the hard drive, it is safe to recycle. Destroy the hard drive by drowning it in the sink or bathtub, or running it over with your car to crush it. Then you can throw that part away.

Recycling centers do not "clear" the laptop. As long as the hard drive is not destroyed or removed, the laptop has your valuable data in it. Any computer shop can remove it for you for a small fee. It only takes a few minutes.

Some say a strong magnet will kill it by eerasing or nullifying the data, but that is not correct. Magnets are not thorough and any data that remains may be usable.

You can drown the entire laptop to ruin it, or you can run the whole thing over with the car to crush it instead of just the hard drive.

If you can find the way to set it back to factory settings, then that is also effective, but it is not always available, depending on the operating system of the laptop.

Hope I've helped.

Agreed! I've always favoured giving these items a long, fully submerged bath.

@bargainsgirl

A work experience:

phones, tablets, and laptops were donated to women's shelters. These were all supposedly reset & wiped clean by both the doners and a company hired to do the job.

The people who received the items were able to access all sorts of info still on the devices that no doner would want to share with others.

From that point on I knew everything had to be submerged, and then physically destroyed.

Good luck!

Re: Old laptops

on the bay — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 15:48:46 GMT

I used my trusty hammer!

Re: Old laptops

cindyNC — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 15:50:11 GMT

My understanding is that submerging a hard drive or using a magnet doesn't work any longer. You have to physically destroy the drive.....the car or hammer method

Re: Old laptops

gardenman — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:22:18 GMT

A lot of more modern computers no longer use a conventional hard drive. SSD's and M.2 drives are rapidly replacing them. Apple has gotten very good at making it nearly impossible to replace/remove their "hard drives." The memory storage chips are soldered onto the motherboard. Unless you have a hot air station and lots of experience, those "hard drives" are there to stay.

Modern desktop computers like to hide hard drives. My new build has slots for two M.2 drives on the motherboard, both hidden under a cover and the case has slots for two SSDs behind the motherboard and up to four conventional hard drives in the power supply shroud. If you go in looking for a "hard drive" in the "normal" location, you'd be shocked to find the computer had none. It could very well have eight though. (Mine only has two M.2 drives though I may move the three old hard drives from my old computer over later.)

Finding "hard drives" in their various configurations these days and then knowing how to remove them is becoming more and more of a challenge. In some cases (many modern Apple products), you just can't remove them. They're there forever.

You're almost smarter to just set aside a shelf in a closet for obsolete electronics and forget they're there. After you're dead someone else can figure out what to do with them, but it won't matter to you as you'll be dead.

Re: Old laptops

Caffeina — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:52:20 GMT

I took mine to Goodwill after removing the hard drive. They have an electronics recycling program with Dell, and take any brand.

https://www.goodwill.org/press-releases/goodwill-and-dell-expand-free-computer-recycling-programs/

Re: Old laptops

Wendy Lou Hoo — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 20:30:43 GMT

I had to get rid of an old desktop that bit the dust earlier this year. I had a guy working a construction job crush it with a backhoe bucket, then bury the pieces.

That should do the job.

Re: Old laptops

chickenbutt — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 21:16:30 GMT

Like Gardenman said, I just keep them. I have the hard drives from every computer I've ever had.

Just clearing the HD is not good enough, for security/safety of personal info. People who are good at this can find stuff even on a totally scrubbed hard drive.

If I get rid of one (I've let my old desktops go), I keep the hard drive and get rid of the rest of it.

Re: Old laptops

monie monie — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 07:02:40 GMT

@chickenbutt What did you do with your old desktops? I still have the first computer that I got from QVC in 2000. It's a Compaq with a huge back, and I have no idea what to do with it.

Re: Old laptops

gadgetgal613 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 23:08:58 GMT

Hammers and cars and water oh my. You don't need to do any of that. There are programs which will rewrite the hard drive multiple times making it unreadable. If the drive is still in good working order, you can remove it, buy an external enclosure and use it as a portable hard drive. That way you could still have access to your data. Or, you could wipe it and start over.

Computers, like all electronics, contain toxic components and should never be thrown in the garbage. Take it to an electronic recycle center for proper disposal.