Destroying Old PCs

BrianH

BrianH

At the Start
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May 3, 2003
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Location
Banstead, Surrey
Two questions - firstly, is there legislation about how and where old PCs can be dumped?

Secondly, after that television programme on how all sorts of details on your identity can be extracted from the hard disc I'd like to know how to wipe it or destroy it.
 
Brian, no rule (as far as I know) about where you can tip them, as long as you don't fly tip! :P

As for erasing the information, there are free programmes where you can basically zero your hard disk before disposing of it. Try Killdisk or Eraser57 which are both free to use!
 
I'm sure a local charity/community group would be happy to take a decent used PC off any donor although I too would want to make sure it was completely erased before passing it on.
 
Either that or a local primary school or similar - I know a few people who have got rid of old PCs by giving them to the children of their friends to mess about on.
 
Schools would be very reluctant to take old PCs from anyone. Anything could be on them and wiping programmes are not always wholely effective.

Brian, a second option would be to use the reboot discs that came with the computer as they will restore the computer to the factory settings and delete or uninstall everything that was on there.
 
You just need to boot up in dos then run fdisk. This wipes it completely so as not to be recoverable. Paul, surely the school would wipe clean and make sure before use?
 
Echoing Dave's answer, a simple run of FDISK to delete the old hard drive partition and then use your boot disk to format the hard drive = totally blank computer.
 
I am sure they would, Dave but the LEA would certainly object, if only because they will be on a nice little bonus from the PC supplier for the school.
 
I would be wary of just using the reboot disk or fdisk as anyone with any intent could still recover the data. Kathy's programmes would be a better idea.

My preference would be to pull out the hard drive (it is only the size of a small book) and hit it with an axe and then burn it. And I am not usally paranoid.
 
Originally posted by betsmate@Aug 30 2006, 12:41 PM
hit it with an axe and then burn it.
Click to expand...
Now we're talking. :D

You could then use the melted plasticy remains as GPMG target practice (perhaps drape a peasant's outfit over it).

Finally, I think a Javelin AT missile would not be considered excessive in ridding yourself of this potential threat.
 
Originally posted by betsmate@Aug 30 2006, 01:41 PM
My preference would be to pull out the hard drive (it is only the size of a small book) and hit it with an axe and then burn it.
Click to expand...
Ah, now you're talking the type of technology I understand.
 
My understanding is that Bestmate's approach is the only 100% reliable way. I recently read a detailed article that covered people getting personal data from hard drives that had been both rebooted(reformated?) and wiped by any number of the erasing programmes. Apparently they cannot clear everything and there are programmes available to the police - and thus to the hackers-that can recover a great deal of data.
My view is smash the hard disc with a hammer or in a vice making sure to smash the disc itself. If you want to pass it on then at a relatively small cost a new hard drive can be purchased and installed. A pristine PC!
 
I saw the same programme Brian which was only days after I had advertised my PC free to any student which went immediately :huh:
 
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