Electronics

[bargainsgirl]

I plan to recycle my old printer at Staples.  Is there such a thing as "wiping it clean"?  They (Staples) said no info is stored on a printer.  At one time I read where you should be careful about recyling printers.  Any info would be appreciated!!

[kittyloo]

i googled it, and it said that some printers have a hard drive.  otherwise, it's erased when the printer is turned off.

[meem120]

I would take out the hard drive.  I think it depends on the computer as far as data being erased.

[gardenman]

The vast majority of home printers don't store much, if anything in  permanent fashion, only business printers tend to do that. (That way the bosses/management can see what's being printed. Printing costs money and they like to know that only business related material is being printed. They also want to know if anyone is printing/faxing their top secret business plans, blueprints, etc.) Most home printers when they store anything do so in RAM which loses its memory when disconnected from the power. Depending on the printer you bought, it may or may not have a hard drive, but probably doesn't have one.

If like most people you bought an under $100 home printer, there's no hard drive.If you splurged and bought a $300+ office style printer, it might have a hard drive. The printer manual or online resources can tell you if it does or doesn't have a hard drive. Most likely it won't have one.

Modern techno thieves have learned that many offices, businesses, schools, etc. don't wipe the hard drives on their used printers and snatch them up when they find them on sale. It's a cheap and easy way to find lots of information at a relatively low cost. Once they harvest the information from the hard drive they'll then resell the used printer and lose nothing in the transaction, but gain information. Lots of interesting stuff gets copied, faxed, or printed and it's all stored on a business machine's hard drive.