What's the best way to dispose of a computer?
Discussion
My old Dell laptop pretty much gave up the ghost last year, so I treated my self to a lovely new iMac 
Anyway, what should I do with the Dell? It was quite a high spec model in 2001 (i.e. obsolete and worthless in 2007). All I want is for a reputable agency to destroy any data and dispose of the hardware, without it costing me a fortune. It looks like there are loads of places that will do this in the corporate sector, but nothing for the home computer market. It seems a bit of a waste for it to go to a landfill site, even though it's clearly out of date. I certainly don't want any money for it, but if a charity could somehow recycle the hardware then they are welcome to it.
There must be plenty of others in this situation... Any advice appreciated.
Anyway, what should I do with the Dell? It was quite a high spec model in 2001 (i.e. obsolete and worthless in 2007). All I want is for a reputable agency to destroy any data and dispose of the hardware, without it costing me a fortune. It looks like there are loads of places that will do this in the corporate sector, but nothing for the home computer market. It seems a bit of a waste for it to go to a landfill site, even though it's clearly out of date. I certainly don't want any money for it, but if a charity could somehow recycle the hardware then they are welcome to it.
There must be plenty of others in this situation... Any advice appreciated.
sadako said:
How broken is it exactly?
Well, it's not exactly broken but it's very unreliable. It runs Windows ME which is continually freezing up and crashing etc. I have lost all confidence in it, but it does still work... sort of.
The dismantling followed by eBay approach does sound reasonable. I take it the hard drive will be easily identifiable once inside - I have no knowledge of computer innards whatsoever!!
Anything else I should deliberately injure or amputate while I'm performing the surgery?
gentleman geoff said:
sadako said:
How broken is it exactly?
Well, it's not exactly broken but it's very unreliable. It runs Windows ME which is continually freezing up and crashing etc. I have lost all confidence in it, but it does still work... sort of.
The dismantling followed by eBay approach does sound reasonable. I take it the hard drive will be easily identifiable once inside - I have no knowledge of computer innards whatsoever!!
Anything else I should deliberately injure or amputate while I'm performing the surgery?
It sounds like it's not broke, it's perfectly serviceable. If you've got the original CD's that came with it it can be restored to it's default factory config.
Do you know anyone with young kids, they're not fussy about what they use and can have lots of fun with an old laptop..
BliarOut said:
gentleman geoff said:
sadako said:
How broken is it exactly?
Well, it's not exactly broken but it's very unreliable. It runs Windows ME which is continually freezing up and crashing etc. I have lost all confidence in it, but it does still work... sort of.
The dismantling followed by eBay approach does sound reasonable. I take it the hard drive will be easily identifiable once inside - I have no knowledge of computer innards whatsoever!!
Anything else I should deliberately injure or amputate while I'm performing the surgery?
It sounds like it's not broke, it's perfectly serviceable. If you've got the original CD's that came with it it can be restored to it's default factory config.
Do you know anyone with young kids, they're not fussy about what they use and can have lots of fun with an old laptop..
Sounds like ME has collapsed under its own weight. A reinstall should fix it up nicely.
Stick an ebayed copy of 2k pro on it and give it to a relative/neighbours kid who's off to uni or starting secondary school. It'll be perfect for school work (which is just typing) and basic net surfing. If you don't have anyone like that nearby throw it in the Friday ads paper for £50 - £100, it's not a lot but a round of drinks or some go juice in your chariot
BliarOut said:
If you've got the original CD's that came with it it can be restored...
Yep, got 'em...
ThePassenger said:
A reinstall should fix it up nicely.
Hmm, maybe all is not lost. I'll try reinstalling ME first and see what happens. I presume eBay is also the place to get a replacement HDD, if I want to change the existing one?
Thanks for the helpful replies.
For the re-use part, you could see if http://uk.freecycle.org/ is operating in your area.
For security, there must be a decent piece of software for overwriting unused disk space a few times. Perhaps try Versiontracker.com?
For security, there must be a decent piece of software for overwriting unused disk space a few times. Perhaps try Versiontracker.com?
HiRich said:
For the re-use part, you could see if http://uk.freecycle.org/ is operating in your area.
I put some old, slow, Sun stuff on Freecycle this morning and have been fighting people off with a shitty stick all day. The first response took less than 15 minutes.
There's loads of old laptops on eBay, I'm sure you can get at least £100 for yours - remove the OS like everyone's said and the new person will stick XP on it!
Aside from eBay, anyone got any advice on where to sell a desktop PC?
Its only 2 years old, good spec but I'm buying a MacBook!
Aside from eBay, anyone got any advice on where to sell a desktop PC?
Its only 2 years old, good spec but I'm buying a MacBook!
tigger1 said:
Remove HDD, insert 6 inch nail through it, twice.
Buy replacement drive and fit, then flog on ebay. Nobody will care about ME, they'll put a copy of XP on
Buy replacement drive and fit, then flog on ebay. Nobody will care about ME, they'll put a copy of XP on
No need to distroy the disk unless its under some sort of security policy
Most consider this software to do the job of wiping the drive: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
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