Recycling old laptops

bargainsgirl · ‎01-13-2012

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!

SXMGirl · ‎07-07-2010

@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.

The next time that I hear salt and ice together, it better be in a margarita!

MillCreekPat · ‎01-28-2017

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.

gizmogal · ‎05-09-2014

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.

jackthebear · ‎03-11-2010

@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

Mz iMac · ‎07-26-2014

@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.

"Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

sunshine45 · ‎03-09-2010

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.

********************************************
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." - Albert Einstein

walkingal · ‎03-09-2010

@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!

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

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.

knittykitty · ‎03-10-2010

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.